# CHaRT Implementation Research Project

> **NIH NIH P20** · UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON · 2024 · $370,779

## Abstract

Project Summary
 In the United States health impacts related to heat exposure are changing rapidly and the burdens are
markedly inequitable. While we have a strong understanding of the hazard, vulnerability, and population factors
driving heat-health risks, and we have information on effective risk reduction interventions, translating these
insights into intervention implementation has been challenging. To address this need and support adaptation at
scale, we have developed Climate and Health Risk Tool (CHaRT), an innovative decision support platform that
supports heat governance processes at the local level. CHaRT provides clear, consistent, transparent risk
assessment at the census tract level and links risk assessment with evidence-based intervention guidance,
allowing for community-engaged adaptation planning. CHaRT has been piloted but not formally evaluated.
 The Research Project has two aims: to evaluate the effectiveness of facilitated engagement with
CHaRT, and to assess barriers and facilitators to CHaRT implementation. To achieve the first aim, we will
measure the intervention’s effectiveness through a pilot randomized controlled trial comparing facilitated
CHaRT engagement with an information-only control. We will recruit 30 local health departments to participate
in the trial with the help of the National Association of City and County Health Officials (NACCHO), the national
member organization for local health departments, CDC and Public Health-Seattle & King County, a local
health department that has used CHaRT in a pilot engagement. We will conduct pre-intervention assessments
to capture each organization’s demographics and heat-health activities and describe the breadth and
effectiveness of pre-intervention activities using the RE AIM framework to describe activity Reach,
Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation, and Maintenance. One year after intervention delivery, we will again
assess heat-health activities and assess differences in the intervention and control groups. To achieve the
second aim, we will conduct a series of key informant interviews with the intervention group to identify barriers
and facilitators of CHaRT implementation and analyze the data using the Consolidated Framework for
Intervention Research (CFIR).
 Our team is well positioned to do this work based on our prior experience with heat-health vulnerability
and adaptation assessment, implementation of heat-health risk reduction interventions, and experience with
program evaluation and implementation science. The work includes several innovations, including evaluation
of a novel decision support tool, new methods to assess intervention effectiveness, and the use of
implementation science to gain insight into climate adaptation activities. The work will result in several products
and insights and lay the foundation for future work including an expanded randomized trial.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10982285
- **Project number:** 1P20ES036748-01
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON
- **Principal Investigator:** Jeremy Johnson Hess
- **Activity code:** P20 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $370,779
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2024-09-11 → 2027-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10982285

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10982285, CHaRT Implementation Research Project (1P20ES036748-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10982285. Licensed CC0.

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