Investigators from the Chronic Health Improvement Research Program (CHIRP) have been collaborating with teams at the Dartmouth Institute Coproduction Laboratory and at the Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University (ECU) on multiple COVID initiatives since the onset of the pandemic. This work includes two recent publications soon to be released (July, 2021) by the ISQua Journal in a special issue on coproduction. The first, led by Dr. Peter Schmidt at ECU and Drs. Brant Oliver and Gene Nelson at Dartmouth, identified three phenotypic patterns of COVID spread and public health response during the acute phase of the pandemic. The second, lead by Dr. Oliver and Dr. Nelson, describes initial development of an integrated measurement approach called the “COVID Compass,” which aims to integrate publicly available data sources into a single visualization approach to put information on COVID related health, hardship, and economic impact in front of busy public health leaders who have to make real-time decisions. Additional initiatives underway include the development of “COVID Compass equipped” registry-enabled learning health systems for Post Acute COVID Syndrome (PACS) in the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Health system in New Hampshire and the Vidant Health system in North Carolina, both of which will include a specific focus on reaching the rural underserved and addressing inequities to access and engagement in care for people with PACS.
“These are critically important initiatives,” says Dr. Oliver, CHIRP ditector, who is an improvement scientist collaborating as Co-Investigator on the project and is also an Associate Professor at the Geisel School of Medicine at the Dartmouth Institute and in the Departments of Community & Family Medicine and Psychiatry. “As many places in the world still fight to combat the acute phase of COVID and others are emerging from it to confront the new challenges presented by PACS, we have a timely opportunity to help people and health systems work together to achieve better health for people affected by COVID. It’s an honor to work with Dr. Nelson, who is an internationally recognized expert in quality measurement, as well as the Dartmouth Atlas, and our Dartmouth and ECU colleagues on this important initiative.”
