Here’s the question: is the health of a neighborhood improving or are healthier people displacing long term residents? This is the subject of research by Nrupen Bhavsar, PhD, assistant professor of medicine (general internal medicine). Bhavsar already is establishing himself as an investigator about the methodological limitations of the EHR and here is another insight, the use of data to understand population health.
AHA Epidemiology presentation, March 6 in Houston
The American Heart Association is sponsoring the Epi | Lifestyle 2019 Scientific Sessions this week. On Wednesday, March 6, 2019, Bhavsar will give an oral presentation for the session that's focused on social determinants of cardiometabolic disease. The title of his work is “Impact of Gentrification on Cardiovascular Disease Surveillance Using Data from the Electronic Health Record”. The co-authors of the submission are Joseph Lunyera, MBChB, MSc, Clarissa Diamantidis, MD, Matthew Maciejewski, PhD, and Ebony Boulware, MD.
AMIA Informatics Summit, March 27 in San Francisco
Later this month, Dr. Bhavsar has opportunity to share results of these data science findings with attendees of the AMIA Informatics Summit. A broader research team joined for this submission which is entitled “Is the health of a neighborhood improving or are healthier people displacing long term residents - a case study of gentrification in Durham County?” Study team members are Matthew Phelan, MS, Megan Shepherd-Banigan, PhD, Joseph Lunyera, MBChB, MSc, Benjamin A. Goldstein, PhD, and Clarissa J. Diamantidis, MD.
Just maybe the influx of the young and healthy to a neighborhood, i.e., gentrification, can look like the health for that community is improving. To quantify the validity and accuracy, these investigators used data from Duke Health and the Lincoln Community Health Center of Durham, NC, and found the impact true especially for obesity and hypertension. The researchers encourage public health practitioners to take this measure into account when reporting the health of a local population.
Read more about Bhavsar’s recent career development funding award, research to address bias from missing data in EHR based studies of cardiovascular disease.