Public Reporting

Healthy Metric went live today, releasing five new brief reports focused on health disparities in Wisconsin. These first reports provide an initial look at the impact the COVID-19 pandemic has had on health and health disparities. The first five reports provide an initial look at the impact the COVID-19 pandemic has had on health and health disparities. They cover a wide range of issues impacting health outcomes and health care in Wisconsin including:

HIP Investigator, Dr. Jen Weiss and Matt Gigot will be presenting at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Department of Population Health Sciences Monday Seminar Series on 4/11. Their presentation: Measuring and Addressing Health Disparities Through a Statewide Quality Improvement Collaborative will address important topics on health disparities. To view the full details of the seminar, click here or view below.

When: Monday, April 11^th, 12:00-1:00 pm

Where: Health Services Learning Center (HSLC), Room 1335

The 2020 Wisconsin Health Disparities Report: Rural and Urban Populations was released at the WCHQ Health Disparities Assembly meeting on November 12, 2020. The assembly featured urban and rural perspectives on health disparities from experts in their fields: HIP Investigator, Jennifer Weiss, MD, MS and Matt Gigot, MPH, presented the findings from the 2020 report and Malia Jones, PhD, MPH presented her research on social and spatial determinants of health at the population level.

Where people live, and the health-related characteristics of their communities, has a significant impact on the health and health outcomes of residents. Differences in health care quality and outcomes for rural and urban populations has been a focus of national priority and attention.

Researchers at UW-Madison distinguished the unique health-related characteristics of rural and urban ZIP codes across Wisconsin to identify important factors (e.g. health care providers, insurance status, poverty) that contribute to health, resulting in six groups of rural and urban ZIP codes in Wisconsin: Rural Underserved, Rural, Rural Advantaged, Urban Underserved, Urban, and Urban Advantaged.

The Wisconsin Collaborative for Healthcare Quality (WCHQ), in collaboration with Health Innovation Program, developed the Wisconsin Health Disparities: Rural and Urban Populations Report to help inform and accelerate programs that are working to eliminate disparities. The 2020 report identifies where disparities in health outcomes and care exist in rural and urban areas in Wisconsin by using a unique categorization system developed by researchers at the University of Wisconsin Health Innovation Program (HIP). Funding for this report was provided by the Wisconsin Partnership Program, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health.

Report Overview

The Wisconsin Collaborative for Healthcare Quality (WCHQ), in collaboration with Health Innovation Program, developed the Wisconsin Health Disparities Report to identify where disparities in health outcomes and care exist in Wisconsin and to help inform and accelerate programs that are working to eliminate disparities.

The PROKids team, led by Elizabeth Cox, MD, PhD, received new NIH funding to develop standard guidance for the use of pediatric PROMIS metrics in ambulatory clinical populations.  In collaboration with leadership from prominent child health advocacy organizations and delivery systems nationally, as well as other PROMIS experts and the Institute for Clinical and Translational Research Dissemination and Implementation Program, PROKids will interview healthcare stakeholders to understand, and ultimately address in the guidance, the challenges and opportunities of assessing pediatric population health with patient-reported metrics.     

HIP collaborates annually with the Wisconsin Collaborative for Healthcare Quality (WCHQ) to sponsor a learning event on topics of current importance to health in Wisconsin. This year's event will showcase several national and state models that are successfully expanding access and integrating behavioral health services into primary care settings. HIP Investigator Rachel Grob will be speaking about HealthExperiencesUSA and the DIPEx methodology to elevate the patient voice in healthcare. The assembly will be held on October 16 at the Monona Terrace in Madison.

Dr. Maureen Smith, HIP Director, was recently featured in a video from the Wisconsin Partnership Program about her disparities project with the Wisconsin Collaborative for Healthcare Quality and the Collaborative Center for Health Equity. This project aims to develop and implement a publicly reported measure of disparity in the quality of care in Wisconsin and examine the sources of disparities in the quality of care. This video was introduced by HIP Outreach Specialist Lauren Bednarz, and shown at the Healthiest State Summit on September 20-21 in Green Bay, WI.

The Wisconsin Collaborative for Healthcare Quality released the Rural Wisconsin Chronic Disease Toolkit, and updated the Toolkit for Improving Hypertension Care & Outcomes and the Toolkit for Improving Diabetes Care & Outcomes.