COVID-19 exposed a harsh reality of health inequities in the Black and Hispanic communities. Learn how Deloitte’s HealthPrism™ platform aims to reduce health disparities in those populations.

COVID-19 revealed significant disparities in access to quality health care. The impact of the virus is twice as deadly among Black and Hispanic communities as compared to White communities in the US.¹ This reality, among others, points to the urgency for government agencies and health care providers to identify and prioritize the needs of underserved communities as the COVID-19 pandemic continues.

HealthPrism™ was developed to help states and health agencies pinpoint and support populations—down to the individual level—at greater risk for certain health issues, making it a critical tool in the fight against COVID-19. HealthPrism applies predictive disease risk models to data about the social determinants of health (SDoH) across the entire adult population of the United States to glean actionable insights on health inequities. The solution’s predictive analytics can enable agencies to be proactive, rather than reactive, in delivering health care, while also optimizing resources and customizing strategic interventions.

Social determinants of health such as education, place of residence, health care access, economic stability, and social and community environment have been shown to correlate with certain conditions, including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, stroke, cancer, kidney disease, mental health, opioid abuse and others.

As state and federal agencies struggle to contain COVID-19 and vaccinate populations, they face several immediate challenges that HealthPrism can provide data and analytics to address:

• Identifying who is at risk: Locating high-risk populations that are subject to health inequities and susceptible to chronic conditions, or infectious disease, due to SDoH.
• Finding support: Mapping their proximity to essential medical or community resources, such as hospitals, COVID-19 vaccination sites, or sources of food.
• Allocating resources: Analyzing the needs of a population based on its SDoH and pinpointing the optimal interventions to promote positive health outcomes.

Deloitte collaborated with the HBCU Week Foundation to turn HBCU Week 2020 into a successful virtual event and to help guide strategic choices about future growth.

HealthPrism™ has been deployed in a variety of situations to help communities allocate scarce resources and identify vulnerable populations to help advance COVID-19 inoculation efforts. HealthPrism has also been used to target at-risk communities for other critical measures related to the pandemic. A mid-Atlantic State Health Equity Task Force team went door-to-door to distribute more than 1.7 million masks and hand sanitizers based on a population health analysis conducted by HealthPrism. State volunteers and distributors used data about the social determinants of health to understand the potential language preferences and other social issues in those communities to improve the accuracy, efficiency, and impact of distribution efforts. The HealthPrism team developed a comprehensive guidebook for the mid-Atlantic states to inform community leaders about equity issues and COVID-19. HealthPrism also supported efforts to set up testing and vaccination sites in high-risk areas across the state.

Deloitte is committed to using HealthPrism to continue the fight against COVID-19 in at-risk communities.

¹https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/covid-data/investigations-discovery/hospitalization-death-by-race-ethnicity.html