STATE PREPARING FOR "GROUNDBREAKING" MUNI-HEALTH INFO RELEASE
By Andy Metzger State House News Service May 9, 2018
BOSTON – A compendium of health data scheduled to be available to the public at the end of the year will inform local decisions, aid medical research and fill in the picture for those interested in the "upstream social determinants" of health, state health officials said Wednesday.
"This is the first time the Department of Public Health will be providing access to data at this scale," said Abigail Averbach, director of the Office of Population Health, within the Department of Public Health.
Known as PHIT – short for Population Health Information Tool – the web-based application will "change the way we look at health," predicted Public Health Commissioner Monica Bharel. "This is really groundbreaking," she said.
PHIT could also serve as another metric for people who are relocating and exploring new places to live.
The tool will allow people to view rates of childhood asthma, diabetes or other diagnoses on a map overlaid with potentially relevant factors – like nearby highways and schools, said Halley Reeves, a Bureau of Community Health and Prevention official who briefed the Public Health Council on the tool.
The endeavor aims to better match up the factors that can influence health – such as housing, employment and the local environment – with health officials' decision-making, according to Reeves, who said the bulk of health spending is poured into clinical care although that is only one factor in someone's overall health.
Last year, the Massachusetts Public Health Association highlighted areas around the state where low-income residents lack nearby access to grocery stores, limiting their ability to obtain fresh produce and other healthy food.
Dr. Alan Woodward, a member of the health council, asked whether when looking at childhood asthma, researchers could evaluate how rates differ at a granular street-to-street level to gauge whether proximity to something like an incinerator was a factor.
The data at first will be presented at the municipal level, but the department aims to make data available at the census block level. Census blocks look like a city block in urban areas and they are not delineated by population, according to the U.S. Census. With other geographic information overlaid on the map, Woodward could "generate new hypotheses where you see those associations," Averbach said.
The first version of PHIT will include data on body mass index, births and deaths, injuries, childhood lead poisoning, food assistance for young families, nursing home falls data, tobacco retailers, hospitalizations, and birth defects, among other measurements, according to the department.
Bharel hopes that accountable care organizations – groups that take on the responsibility for a specific population's health – will be able to provide information on housing stability.
"It is hard to put your finger on the housing stability of an entire population," the public health commissioner said.
PHIT will also produce health priority reports for every city and town, outlining health factors particular to each community.
Derek Brindisi, director of public health for Worcester and a member of the health council, said many local governments "don't have the resources to do this kind of work" on their own, and he thinks PHIT will be a "powerful tool."