Reducing COVID-19 Health Disparities in San Francisco

The PRISE Center partnered with the San Francisco Department of Public Health (SFDPH) and community-based organizations (CBOs) on a grant focused on reducing COVID-related health disparities in San Francisco neighborhoods experiencing an undue burden of COVID infections.

Activities included:

Qualitative Interviews with CBOs
PRISE Center faculty, Dr. Elaine Khoong, and former staff member, Elizabeth Sherwin, led interviews with 36 CBOs to better understand how they gather and use data about the communities they serve. The research explored both challenges and opportunities for improving data sharing between CBOs, SFDPH, and health care systems. Findings revealed that CBOs desire a bi-directional relationship with SFDPH that is mutually beneficial, more sustainable and longer-term funding—especially for mental health services, better communication, and more consistent opportunities for collaboration.

Neighborhood Tours
In response to CBO qualitative interview findings, SFDPH and community partners launched guided walking tours for community clinic staff within neighborhoods in which community clinics are located. These tours helped health clinic staff learn how local history, culture, and living conditions affect their patients’ health and access to health care. A PRISE Center evaluation of the tours, led by former staff member Akilan Saami, found that participants better understood the needs of residents living in the neighborhood and the resources available to patients.

Data Visualization Toolkit and Seminars
To support CBOs with limited data capacity, the PRISE Center, SFDPH’s Center for Data Science, San Francisco State University, and Mujeres Unidas y Activas co-developed a data visualization toolkit. The toolkit is designed to demystify the ‘world of data’ and to help communities tell their health stories. In addition, the team—which included collaborators from UCSF’s Institute for Global Health Sciences, the Medical College of Wisconsin, and UC Berkeley—developed and implemented a series of equity-focused seminars on using data visualization to support community engagement and inclusive decision-making. Seminar topics included: Equity and Data Visualization, Community Engagement with Data Visualization, Visualizations for Impact and Equity, and Geographies of Inclusion.