The National Minority Health Association (NMHA), a national health-equity advocacy group, announced today that it has tapped the expertise of Epistemix, a leader in epidemiological modeling, and Talus Analytics, a data analysis and visualization firm, to launch COVID-SCAPE. The new online tool is now available for use by those who want to assess their personal COVID-19 risk, based on age, location, and vaccination status.
Instead of estimating risk based solely on equations and static national averages, COVID-SCAPE takes into account local factors, down to the zip code level, and projects them over time, while offering specific recommendations on the best decisions for users and their family.
"We felt that estimates of general infection risk needed to account for local dynamics and an individual's everyday activities. Using local population data makes the tool specific to each neighborhood, enabling more accurate and informative risk assessments," said Burgess Harrison, executive director, NMHA.
How does it work?
By simply entering basic demographic info, zip code, and vaccination status, COVID-SCAPE's unique algorithm takes into account the latest local public health data, behaviors, policies, and interventions in a community and returns an assessment showing an individual, location-specific infection and hospitalization risk, forecast over the next 4 months.
"What is unique is that COVID-SCAPE bases estimates on simulations of the future epidemiological risk, community by community, and focuses on underserved populations," said John Cordier, CEO of Epistemix. "We are proud and excited to work with the National Minority Health Association to provide an easy-to-use, science-based tool to help more people understand the value of vaccination and hopefully get vaccinated," continued Cordier.
What can users discover with COVID-SCAPE?
The personal risk of becoming sick enough to miss work.
The personal risk of becoming sick enough to go to the hospital.
The personal risk of becoming sick and dying.
The COVID-SCAPE database includes all previous cases, hospitalizations, deaths, and vaccination coverage across the country since March, 2020. The tool also factors in COVID-19 variants, length of protection from initial vaccines and booster shots, and protection derived from previous infections. It also foresees how the epidemic might change in the future.
Origins of COVID-SCAPE
This collaboration grew out of a larger NMHA project, Flex for Checks. The Flex for Checks community-based program, is part of an $11.1 million grant from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), which seeks to mobilize homecare employees to increase vaccination confidence and rates in underserved communities.
It is estimated that at least 18% of home health workers themselves are vaccine-hesitant, which makes increasing their vaccination rates a public health priority. NMHA chose to partner with Epistemix and Talus to design this risk assessment tool specifically for home health workers and the at-risk communities they serve.
"Homecare workers will now be able to easily assess their risk for COVID-19 and what that risk looks like with and without the vaccine," said Harrison. "We are thrilled to be working with Epistemix and Talus in the effort to save lives in the midst of the ongoing pandemic."
COVID-SCAPE is free to use for individuals and covers every zip code in the United States.
"Fast, easy-to-use risk assessments help people make better decisions," said Dr. Ellie Graeden, CEO of Talus Analytics. "This partnership gives people a window into how COVID-19 impacts their day-to-day lives."
There is also a paid enterprise version available for businesses and insurers who want to evaluate the impacts of COVID-19 on return to work, business travel, sick time, lost productivity, and future health costs.
About NMHA. The National Minority Health Association, founded in 1988 by Dr. David L. Dalton, Chairman...
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