new open source Pophealth Booster project

[AJ Chen]

I have just created the open source "pophealth booster" project on google code. Here is why:

Let’s join force to end health disparities using technology!

This project started in 2011 because of a personal story. My brother-in-law was tested HBV positive about 20 years ago, but did not do anything until his liver suddenly failed in 2010. He had a liver transplant but it was too late - cancer had spread already. After exhausting all treatment options, he passed away before Christmas in 2011. His tragedy inspired me to find solutions to prevent the same tragedy from happening to millions of chronic hepatitis patients around the world.

Problem: It’s estimated by WHO and US HHS that about 500 million people worldwide are chronically infected by HBV or HCV, and 70% of them are not getting tested and treated. Many of these chronic hepatitis patients will face liver failure or liver cancer, which cause about 1 million death per year.  Such shocking health disparities also exists more broadly. Studies from the Institute of Medicine have uncovered that only 50% of patients are getting recommended cares in the US.

Cause: Chronic diseases like hepatitis can be effectively controlled with modern medications if they are treated earlier. Why are we not doing it?  I have learned from Dr. Sam So, a liver surgeon at Stanford and a pioneer of public campaign against hepatitis, that the reason is surprisingly simple.  For example, medical guidelines for HBV and HCV very often are not followed through in clinics, and patients are not aware of the deadly consequence of viral hepatitis.    

Solution: My analysis leads to a simple technology solution: Embed medical guidelines as an application in routine care workflow to auto-detect health care disparities and trigger doctors and patients to remove the disparities at the point of care. There are published clinical studies indicating disparities in certain diseases can be eliminated by clinical practice closely adhere to the medical guidelines.

Open source: HHS has already set the foundation for this solution with its open source PopHealth platform. PopHealth is designed to measure care quality for meaningful use reporting purpose.  To implement the solution to health care disparities, we need to move one step forward from quality measures to personalized recommendation and alerts for patients based on medical guidelines. After quickly developing a prototype, I have made Pophealth Booster project open source on Google.  I welcome open source developers to join me to build the first health equity software.  

Collaboration: To win the battle against health disparities, we need not only technology but also collaboration from clinics, advocates, philanthropy community, and government initiatives. As a volunteer serving on the Region IX Health Equity Council of the National Partnership for Action (NPA) to End Disparities, my mission is to build collaborations for implementing simple and effective technology solutions to eliminate disparities in chronic diseases such as hepatitis. The overwhelming supports I have received from US HHS have made me feel more confident that this mission is not impossible.

aj
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AJ Chen, PhD
Chair of Data Committee, NPA Region IX Health Equity Council
Palo Alto, CA 94306, USA