By Kevin McKeough
A new of the Chicago area allows anyone with internet access to see the prevalence of 38 long-term health conditions, plus firearm injuries, by ZIP codes and other geographic areas. This free interactive tool was designed to support researchers, community organizations, policymakers and community members in discovering meaningful solutions to health disparities.
鈥淗ealth systems鈥 and public health leaders鈥 shared vision of a healthier region is hindered by fragmented knowledge of the patterns that reveal why people get and stay sick,鈥 said John Rich, MD, MPH, professor of medicine and the Harrison I. Steans Director of the RUSH BMO Institute for Health Equity. 鈥淭he Chicago Health Map for the first time uses clinical data to map chronic disease down to the census tract level and provides actionable insight.鈥
The Chicago Health Map incorporates data from seven major health systems and tracks 38 health conditions across 2.8 million patients in the six-county Chicago area. The data is gathered through the CONSCIENCE (CONnecting SCIence 鈥 ENgaging Chicago for Equity) project, a collaboration by the participating health systems.
鈥淚t鈥檚 data that will benefit communities, health care systems and public health. We鈥檙e using data that鈥檚 sort of siloed,鈥 says , who led the team at 海角原创 that created the Chicago Health Map.
Rojas is Rush鈥檚 associate chief medical information officer and director of the Rush Health Equity Data Analytics Studio, which built chicagohealthmap.com. The studio is part of the RUSH BMO Institute for Health Equity, which brings together hospitals, community organizations and residents to break down barriers to health.
The map鈥檚 clinical data cover adults 18 years and older who visited a participating hospital, clinic or emergency room at least once from Jan. 1, 2019, through Dec. 31, 2024, and received a diagnosis of at least one condition of interest. The data is delayed by three to six months and updated once a year.
The conditions being tracked include high blood pressure and high cholesterol, diabetes, dementia, depression, 13 types of cancer and other illnesses.
The clinical data is fully de-identified (that is, kept anonymous) and de-duplicated. 鈥淲e just have counts鈥 of the conditions, Rojas says. 鈥淣one of this is identified in a meaningful way. It鈥檚 just digits in a row.鈥
Rich adds that firearm injuries impact the health of entire communities, not just individual gunshot victims. 鈥淚ncluding firearm injury alongside chronic disease is deliberate and provides even more clarity, as exposure to community violence directly or indirectly generates a measurable disease burden.
鈥淯nderstanding that gun violence can and should be addressed as a public health concern and not just as a public safety matter is an important step toward addressing the root causes of violence.鈥
Color-coded pictures of health
The map allows users to search by geographic area (such as U.S. census tract or Chicago community area), by health condition, and by demographic information such as race and age. Depending on the search parameters and available data, results may include diagnosis prevalence rates, a list of the most common conditions in an area and comparisons with a Chicago-wide figure.
Because not all residents seek care at participating systems, the site explains, the figures represent a clinical sample rather than the total level of disease in the area.
The counties included in the map are Cook County, which includes Chicago, and the five bordering 鈥渃ollar鈥 counties 鈥 DuPage, Kane, Lake, McHenry and Will.
The map also may provide demographic information and measures of social determinants of health (such as food security, housing and transportation) giving greater context to community-level health trends. The results are color-coded to provide a quick visual comparison between areas with higher or lower levels of the condition included in the search parameters.
Users also have the option to search for pharmacies, food vendors who participate in the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP, and community resources. Rojas notes that this feature could direct users to resources that could support them or help people in the community identify potential partners for health initiatives.
The map has countless potential uses. Researchers can find health data at the neighborhood level for their studies. Policymakers can see which health needs are greatest in an area in order to develop responses. Community members can find data that may support or reduce their concerns. People involved in community work can target their efforts and track whether health conditions are improving.
鈥淚n Chicago鈥檚 Austin neighborhood, the rate of high blood pressure is quite high compared to the city average, but even within Austin, there are census tracts that have rates twice as high as others,鈥 Rojas says. Seeing these differences visualized can help focus responses, he adds.
Health equity meets data IT
The Chicago Health Map differs from the online Chicago Health Atlas created by the Chicago Department of Public Health, which uses survey data to estimate the prevalence of chronic disease in the city鈥檚 neighborhoods. The map is meant to be a complementary resource.
鈥淣either one is wrong,鈥 Rojas says. 鈥淪urveys miss people who don鈥檛 know they鈥檙e sick, and medical records miss people who don鈥檛 go to the doctor.鈥
A five-year, $7.5 million grant from the Searle Funds at the Chicago Community Trust supports the Rush Health Equity Data Analytics Studio, the research and technical engine behind the Chicago Health Map. 鈥淭he map is an exciting project that exemplifies both Rush鈥檚 leadership in advancing health equity and its innovation in the use of health data and information technology,鈥 Rich says.
鈥淚 encourage everyone who works or studies at Rush to spend some time exploring the map鈥檚 capabilities, and I hope colleagues throughout the Chicago area will make use of this tremendous resource that they have helped us create.鈥
In addition to Rush, the six other organizations participating in the Chicago Health Map are AllianceChicago, Cook County Health, Endeavor Health, Northwestern Medicine, UChicago Medicine and the University of Illinois Hospital & Health Sciences System. They are members of 鈥 the Chicago Area Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Network 鈥 a group of hospitals and clinics across Chicago that share data for research.
CAPriCORN is the Chicago Health Map鈥檚 primary data source and maintains a broader, fully de-identified, de-duplicated and standardized clinical dataset containing health care visit data from more than 12 million patients in the Chicago area.
Rojas hopes their collaboration on the Chicago Health Map can be a model for similar collaborations across the country. 鈥淢y pie in the sky vision is for this to be a blueprint for other major urban areas to do something similar,鈥 he says.
