# Virginia Accountable Health Equity and Action Dashboard (VA-AHEAD):  Community Framing of Equity Data to Support Clinical and Translational Science

> **NIH NIH RC2** · VIRGINIA COMMONWEALTH UNIVERSITY · 2024 · $799,890

## Abstract

VIRGINIA ACCOUNTABLE HEALTH EQUITY AND ACTION DASHBOARD: COMMUNITY FRAMING OF
 EQUITY DATA TO SUPPORT CLINICAL TRANSLATIONAL SCIENCE
PROJECT SUMMARY
Disease burden, healthcare delivery, health outcomes, and life expectancy differ strikingly across US
populations and communities. Inequity is deeply rooted in the US healthcare system, and translational science
should study and address the structural biases that lead to disparities. To set priorities and focus research
where needed, translational science teams and communities need to co-create data systems that allow them
to identify health inequities and potential underlying causes; track trends, including the impact of their work;
and collaborate to develop priorities and solutions. The Wright Regional CCTS is a national leader at
developing census tract measures to inform research, training, care, and policy. Our CTSA hub has developed
the HealthLandscape Virginia geospatial and analytic data warehouse with novel community-level metrics that
span workforce, clinical care, community characteristics, social and economic factors, and health outcomes.
We have used HealthLandscape and a novel bright spot and community asset mapping analysis, a blend of
advanced analytics and community engagement, to identify communities that do better or worse than predicted
for opioid overdose deaths and potential causal factors. This approach needs to be expanded to a wider range
of equity issues. Building on existing data, analytics, strengths in community engagement, and HLVA platform,
we propose to develop the Virginia Accountable Health Equity and Action Dashboard (Va-AHEAD). Our work
will occur in four phases: (1) prioritize and co-create with the community new equity goals and measures, (2)
identify bright spot communities that do better than expected and factors that may contribute to their success,
(3) develop shared meaning, products, and action from the data, and (4) disseminate and support use of equity
content. To develop content, we will use unique person-level data (All-Payer Claims Database, state mortality
data), community-level data sources, and authentic community engagement grounded in community-based
participatory research and guided by our bright spot and community asset mapping approach. Content will be
configured in Va-AHEAD. For each equity topic, one of seven existing community advisory boards will support
content development and usability design of content. We will form a new Equity Research Opportunity lab, a
learning community to support use of the dashboard and products for equity research. Milestones to
demonstrate success include: (1) engage community partners to prioritize and coproduce content, (2) calculate
new equity measures, (3) identify bright and cold spot communities and their equity solutions and needs, (4)
engage researchers, learners, care team members, and policymakers to use the dashboard, and (5)
longitudinally track Va-AHEAD use and impact on translational science and e...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10928329
- **Project number:** 1RC2TR005115-01
- **Recipient organization:** VIRGINIA COMMONWEALTH UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Alexander H Krist
- **Activity code:** RC2 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $799,890
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2024-09-18 → 2029-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10928329

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10928329, Virginia Accountable Health Equity and Action Dashboard (VA-AHEAD):  Community Framing of Equity Data to Support Clinical and Translational Science (1RC2TR005115-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10928329. Licensed CC0.

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