Nursing’s ViVE center deployed data for disaster response

Map of western North Carolina counties — After Hurricane Helene hit, a research team at Carolina used its data to show which communities were hardest hit and most difficult to access. (ViVE Center, UNC Librarians Philip McDaniel and Gracie Riehm, Carolina Health Informatics Program PhD Candidate John Geracitano and the NC Department of Transportation)

When Hurricane Helene hit western North Carolina in late September, it caused historic flooding that quickly washed out roads and bridges and damaged parts of the main interstate highways. Within hours, much of that part of the state became impassible, and residents had no power, water and cellular access.

Saif Khairat, a professor and Beerstecher-Blackwell Distinguished Term Scholar at the UNC School of Nursing, immediately knew data housed at UNC-Chapel Hill could play an important role in helping relief workers know more about who needed help and where.

Saif Khairat

His team at the Center for Virtual Care Value and Equity had a treasure trove of information on every ZIP code in the state as they analyze who has access to health care and who doesn’t. Last year, the National Institutes of Health’s Center for Advancing Translational Sciences awarded the University a $3.73 million grant to establish ViVE. The center collects socioeconomic data to help others figure out how to provide care and broaden access to digital health services.

“We have been working for a number of years on a way to understand the level of access to health care that communities have,” Khairat said. “We look at variables such as how many people in a community have access to a vehicle, which is a proxy of their ability to reach their doctor. How far are they from the closest highway? Who has an internet service provider?”

Within days of the event, Khairat and his team had aggregated publicly available information from the North Carolina Department of Transportation with its own data to create a map that could help identify areas of need. The darker blue areas of the map show the most vulnerable ZIP codes, where health care access is most difficult. They overlayed the NCDOT data to mark areas where bridges and roads have been destroyed or blocked, helping to identify where individuals may be difficult to reach.

A roadway in western North Carolina covered by broken trees and tree limbs following Hurricane Helene.

Inaccessible road in rural Yancey County following Hurricane Helene. (Photo by Vickie Zitney)

“It allows us to do two things: understand the characteristics of these communities from a socioeconomic and health access standpoint and tailor our interventions to the needs of these communities,” Khairat said.

The center shared the tool widely with policymakers, health care leaders and providers to help them better understand how to provide care, as many of the communities already have access barriers. His hope is that the information can be used to identify areas where individuals have internet and can have a virtual care visit, or the ability to have a telephone visit.

An informatics expert, Khairat has spent years researching and collecting information on telemedicine and telehealth in health services and health data usability and visualization. In times of crisis, access to real-time accurate data can lead to timelier, tailored interventions, Khairat said.

“We have the technology to be able to aggregate thousands and millions of data points, and we can do it in a way that is intuitive and easy to digest. But what we’re lacking access to real-time accurate data,” he said.

ViVE’s recent partnership with the transportation department shows the importance of that access for emergencies. “We hope we don’t have anything similar to Helene in the future, but if we do, we’re going to be prepared,” Khairat said.