News

The Satcher Health Leadership Institute and Google.org received two Halo Awards for their Health Equity Tracker, winning Gold for "Best Health Initiative" and Silver for "Best COVID-19 Initiative" at the 2022 ceremony.

Highlights findings from the American COVID-19 Vaccine Poll on vaccine uptake among communities of color, emphasizing the need for quality data to address hesitancy.

The Health Equity Tracker has expanded to include a new "Behavioral Health" category with five indicators: Frequent Mental Distress, Depression, Suicide, Opioid and Other Substance Misuse, and Alcohol Use, helping to address significant disparities in mental and behavioral health outcomes.

Explores how social determinants like racism, stigma, and lack of culturally competent services contribute to behavioral health disparities during COVID-19.

Evaluates the completeness of CDC COVID-19 datasets as a replacement for the Covid Tracking Project, comparing case counts and race/ethnicity data availability.

The Satcher Health Leadership Institute's Health Equity Tracker has launched vaccination data as part of its most recent update, highlighting underlying factors contributing to vaccine hesitancy and inequitable vaccine access for historically marginalized communities.

Dr. David Satcher and Daniel Dawes reflect on how the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted disparities in healthcare access and exacerbated health inequities, particularly for Black Americans who have lost about three years of life expectancy during the pandemic.

Explains how the Affordable Care Act mandated standardized demographic data collection to identify health inequities, and why emergency situations like COVID-19 often result in incomplete reporting.

Discusses balancing data collection with community needs, urging public health professionals to examine internal biases while using data responsibly to advance equity.