The Beat #002: Shazam🎵
Digital health stories told through famous song lyrics
It’s Just a Shot Away (Rolling Stones - “Gimme Shelter”)
Despite significant spikes across the country, the announcements of potentially safe and effective vaccines from Moderna, Pfizer, and AstraZeneca bring some much needed hope to the American public.
However, the next key challenge to tackle will be distributing the vaccine efficiently to the country’s frontline healthcare workers, the elderly, and other highly vulnerable populations. But if COVID testing serves as any proxy, we’ve seen that these lines can stretch three to four hours as result of the exploding demand, poor site placement, and limited staffing.
One potential solution: geographic information system (GIS) mapping software
As a way to model the distribution for COVID-19 vaccines, we need to look no further than the distribution model of annual flu shots. One successful recent example is Carlton County, a small county of 35,000 located in the northeast corner of Minnesota, who used GIS to mapping software and location intelligence data to vaccinate three times as many people with a flu shot than in previous years.
In particular, dashboard views of the GIS software allowed Carlton County to track the flow of patients at various flu vaccine clinics, analyzing not only the density at an individual clinic but also its traffic patterns at various points throughout the day (i.e., who comes in the morning vs during lunchtime vs after work).
The payoff: These types of data allow clinics to optimize patient scheduling as well as manage critical staffing needs as high priority populations rush to receive the vaccine. In addition, given their ultracold storage requirements, local authorities can be more strategic regarding the placement of their clinics, ensuring that the vaccine is accessible and timely to those who need it the most.
Daughters Will Love Like You Do (John Mayer - “Daughters”)
A heartwarming story from the Iowa Department of Public Health (DPH) offers a lesson on how to make a real impact in underserved communities.
Over a two-year stretch, the state's Maternal and Child Health Title V Program has been able to increase the percentage of mothers receiving a regular source of obstetrical care from 67% to 97%. In addition, the Iowa DPH has addressed more than 7 million social care needs for Iowa’s vulnerable maternal and child population.
So, how did they do it: By partnering with healthcare technology company Signify Health to develop a shared communication platform.
This statewide community network enables providers across the state's 99 counties to safely share information, coordinate services, and connect members to non-medical needs like transportation, housing, health management resources, and mental health services.
Using Signify Health's platform, community providers and agency workers are able to seamlessly transition families across the program, beginning with obstetrical care for pregnant women to early childhood development and well-child visits.
Zooming out: Signify Health's technology platform replaces historically fragmented data collection processes, uniting all incoming data sources into a single system that creates a longitudinal roadmap across care settings and allows for real-time outcomes reporting.
It’s an encouraging sign to see technology address and resolve one of the wide health disparities in this country.
All My Bags Are Packed, I'm Ready to Go (John Denver - “Leaving On A Jet Plane”)
Safely reopening airline travel requires a multi-layered approach, one that not only includes rapid COVID testing but also standardized result formats and uniform certification systems.
However, as of now, results from COVID tests are often shared on pieces of paper from independent labs using variable documentation. Without the ability to accurately decipher and trust COVID test results across international borders, countries will feel compelled to retain full travel bans and mandatory quarantines upon arrival.
So, what can we do: Similar to a passport, which verifies the identity and nationality of a traveler, the CommonPass mobile app verifies that a passenger has tested negative for COVID and meets the country’s idiosyncratic entry requirements.
Once a passenger uploads negative test results from an approved lab to their phone, they’ll receive a QR code that can be scanned during travel to ensure compliance with evolving local regulations.
Looking ahead: Following a successful test with United Airlines in October, four more major airlines (JetBlue, Lufthansa, Swiss International Airlines, United Airlines, and Virgin Atlantic) plan to incorporating the CommonPass mobile app in December for select flights departing from New York, Boston, London, and Hong Kong.
Further, CommonPass eventually plans to include vaccination records into their mobile, creating a comprehensive footprint of individual’s COVID-related health data.
PS: Our meme of the week!
