DHIT Awarded Grant by NC Policy Collaboratory to Develop Community Confidence Tool for COVID-19 Reopening

CHAPEL HILL, N.C., Aug. 19, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- As part of the 2020 COVID-19 Recovery Act, the North Carolina Policy Collaboratory has awarded the Digital Health Institute for Transformation (DHIT) a grant to research, validate, and build a simulation platform and recommendation engine to support North Carolina business and community leaders as they navigate difficult decisions around reopening.

The project is a collaboration between DHIT, the Institute for Convergent Sciences and Innovate Carolina at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and the NC Chamber Foundation, among others. According to Michael Levy, DHIT President: "We are in the middle of an unprecedented global pandemic with no clear strategy to successfully reopen our economy without risking the destruction of the health of our communities. We lack confidence in existing strategies and clarity on which communities and businesses should reopen, when they should reopen and how they should remain open. More reliable, local data-driven guidance is critical to allow the safe and successful reopening of businesses, schools, religious institutions and other parts of our communities."

The platform will leverage machine learning and advanced analytics to ingest huge amounts of national and regional data, including but not limited to: health and epidemiological data, labor and economic data, occupational data, consumer behavior and attitudinal data, and environmental data. The resulting dashboard will provide business owners and community stakeholders with real-time intelligence and predictive modelling on population health risk, consumer sentiment and community resiliency. Users will be able to view the risk to their business/county, as well as simulate the impact of implementing evidence-based recommendations, enabling them to make informed decisions.

According to Jeffrey Warren, Executive Director of the NC Policy Collaboratory, "We are excited to be able to work with DHIT to develop this much-needed utility to enable business owners and county administrators to make evidence-based decisions to safeguard the health of their employees and communities. The platform will initially be piloted in seven NC counties, with the intent to scale to additional counties across North Carolina, and if successful, other states."

The seven NC counties chosen for the initial pilot are: Ashe, Buncombe, Gates, Mecklenburg, New Hanover, Robeson, and Wake. These counties were selected based on their diversity with respect to a multitude of factors: overall health outcomes, geography, rurality, economic distress, prosperity zones, population density, racial diversity, age, education level, and number of COVID-19 cases.

If you are a community organization or business located in the counties listed above and are interested in being a beta tester for this initiative, please contact [email protected].

For further information, visit communityconfidence.org.

ABOUT DHIT
The Digital Health Institute for Transformation (DHIT) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit education and research institute supporting communities through the process of digital health transformation. For more information, visit dhitglobal.org.

CONTACT: Brian Cooper
EMAIL: [email protected]

SOURCE DHIT Global

Related Links

https://www.dhitglobal.org