Disparity dashboards: an evaluation of the literature and framework for health equity improvement

Jack Gallifant; Emmett Alexander Kistler; Luis Filipe Nakayama; Chloe Zera; Sunil Kripalani; Adelline Ntatin; Leonor Fernandez; David Bates; Irene Dankwa-Mullan; Leo Anthony Celi

doi:10.1016/S2589-7500(23)00150-4

Disparity dashboards: an evaluation of the literature and framework for health equity improvement

Lancet Digit Health. 2023 Nov;5(11):e831-e839. doi: 10.1016/S2589-7500(23)00150-4.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Laboratory for Computational Physiology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA. Electronic address: jgally@mit.edu.
² Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care, and Sleep Medicine, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA, USA.
³ Laboratory for Computational Physiology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA; Department of Ophthalmology, São Paulo Federal University, São Paulo, Brazil.
⁴ Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Biology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA, USA.
⁵ Department of Medicine, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA.
⁶ Department of Health Equity, Beth Israel Lahey Health, Boston, MA, USA.
⁷ Department of Medicine, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA, USA.
⁸ Division of General Internal Medicine and Primary Care, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA; Department of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
⁹ Merative & Center for AI, Research, and Evaluation, IBM Watson Health, Cambridge, MA, USA; Department of Health Policy and Management, Milken Institute School of Public Health, George Washington University, Washington, DC, USA.
¹⁰ Laboratory for Computational Physiology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA; Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care, and Sleep Medicine, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA, USA; Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T H Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA.

Abstract

The growing recognition of differences in health outcomes across populations has led to a slow but increasing shift towards transparent reporting of patient outcomes. In addition, pay-for-equity initiatives, such as those proposed by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, will require the reporting of health outcomes across subgroups over time. Dashboards offer one means of visualising data in the health-care context that can highlight essential disparities in clinical outcomes, guide targeted quality-improvement efforts, and ultimately improve health equity. In this Viewpoint, we evaluate all studies that have reported the successful development of a disparity dashboard and share the data collected and unintended consequences reported. We propose a framework for systematic equality improvement through incentivisation of the collecting and reporting of health data and through implementation of reward systems to reduce health disparities.

Publication types

Review
Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

MeSH terms

Aged
Delivery of Health Care
Health Equity*
Health Facilities
Humans
Medicare
Quality Improvement
United States

Abstract

Publication types

MeSH terms

Grants and funding