12. Population Health, More Important Now Than Ever? An Equity Approach to Supporting Communities

(Population Health, Innovative Data and Analytics Transformation — Course Level: Beginning)

During the COVID-19 outbreak, Mass General Brigham (MGB) chose a strategy of focusing many of their population health efforts on the needs of the most vulnerable communities. Access to data allowed the MGB team to identify hotspots with the highest case rates, so care teams knew where to focus their resources. Teaming up with local governments, MGB provided resources for underserved communities and proactively combatted the spread of COVID-19 by:

• Creating local pop-up COVID-19 testing sites in community health centers, bodegas, etc.
• Communicating educational messages or opt-in for outreach correspondence via mass texting in ten languages.
• Scaling a call center to provide screening and referrals based on social determinants of health.
• Assembling and mailing care kits to patients without masks.