The Atlanta-based Morehouse School of Medicine on May 26 launched its Health Equity Tracker, a data platform showing the disparate effects COVID-19 has brought upon people of color and those with a lower socioeconomic status.
Four things to know about the data tracker:
- Developed by researchers and health equity advocates from Morehouse, the data tracker is funded by Google.org, Gilead, Annie E. Casey Foundation and CDC Foundation.
- It collects, analyzes and visualizes COVID-19 cases, deaths and hospitalizations across ethnicity, sex and age, ranging from a entire-country view to the county level.
- The tracker lets users view various conditions and determinants that have led to disparate COVID-19 outcomes, such as diabetes, COPD, being uninsured and living below the poverty line.
- The project was launched to address the inconsistency in COVID-19 data specific to race and ethnicity, as 38 percent of federally collected COVID-19 cases don't include information on race and ethnicity. The coalition's goal is to shine a spotlight on health disparities in the U.S. even after the pandemic subsides so that policymakers can make data-informed decisions.