Travis Sanchez*, Emory University, Atlanta, United States Track: Practice Presentation Topic: Public (e-)health, population health technologies, surveillance Presentation Type: Rapid-Fire Presentation Submission Type: Single Presentation Building: Mermaid Room: Room 2 - Aldgate/Bishopsgate Date: 2013-09-23 04:00 PM – 06:00 PM Last modified: 2013-09-25

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Full realization of positive health outcomes for persons with chronic illness requires adequate diagnosis as well as initiation and consistent retention in appropriate care. For some illnesses, like HIV infection, we have become proficient at identifying overall patterns of infection, diagnosis and treatment, but little attention has been paid to how these patterns vary by geography. Online tools are robust for mapping illness data, and allow for insights into geographic patterns of illness and care that are not possible with aggregate or static figures. Public health data on population-level health outcomes may be particularly useful to inform how an illness impacts the community as a whole. These resources can be instrumental in targeting areas that need more/better services, and may help to mobilize public health, policy, and health care resources.

A construct called the “HIV Treatment Cascade” has been developed to illustrate key steps in an effective public health response to HIV epidemics. The HIV Treatment Cascade includes the key measures of overall HIV diagnosis, late-stage HIV at diagnosis, initiation of HIV care, retention in HIV care, and suppression of HIV virus. A collaboration of academic, private, and public health partners has developed a free interactive online resource for visualizing HIV treatment cascade elements by geography. The maps use disease surveillance and laboratory data from public health agencies to not only show overall postal code variations in these cascade elements within major US cities, but also variations in cascade elements among demographic groups. Maps of different cascade elements or for different demographic groups can be viewed side-by-side to allow for better pattern visualization. All maps can be zoomed/panned and side-by-side maps do so in sync. High-resolution maps can also be downloaded for later use. The entire site uses a familiar and simple interface but also allows for a high degree of interaction and customization. With a few clicks, users can select the city to view, the demographic population(s) of interest, and the cascade element(s) of interest. As an example, side-by-side geographic patterns of high late-stage HIV diagnosis and low linkage to HIV care among African Americans in a city may indicate where additional testing and linkage to care services are needed for this population.

The presentation will review the features of this new online tool using data from Philadelphia, a city highly impacted by HIV. We will also discuss the implications that the resource has not only for understanding the HIV epidemic, but also how public health data sources may be used to map illness, monitor care, and lead to improvements in the provision of medical services.