- AI4HealthyCities Health Equity Network from Novartis Foundation, Microsoft AI for Health and NYU School of Global Public Health uses data and analytics to target heart health disparity
- Additional cities will be announced soon, with each city program examining the impact of different factors affecting heart health, such as structural racism, housing or education
- AI4HealthyCities challenges the current reality where neighboring zip codes have drastic differences in the heart health of their residents
NEW YORK, September 19, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — New York is the first city to be announced in the new AI4HealthyCities Health Equity Network, which aims to reimagine how cities address heart health disparities.
“Whether at the global or local level, health inequalities are shaped by economic status and access to resources,” said Dr. Ann Aerts, head of the Novartis Foundation. “In New York and other cities, we believe that AI-driven data and insights can help stakeholders make informed decisions on impactful urban heart health interventions that ultimately reach the greatest number of people.”
AI4HealthyCities aims to bring together data from health and health-affecting sectors and apply innovative data science techniques to provide authorities and other decision-makers with insights into the main drivers of cardiovascular disease – the world’s number one cause of death and disability.1 Since health is not only affected by the quality of health care, but also by the conditions in which people are born, raised, work, and age, these data-driven insights can increase understanding of how heart health can be improved by modifying certain by social, economic or environmental determinants of health. These include factors as diverse as housing, access to healthy food, physical exercise or green space, education, occupation, pollution, migration, and the impact of racism and structural racism.
The AI4HealthyCities Health Equity Network was created by the Novartis Foundation and developed in collaboration with Microsoft AI for Health. The Novartis Foundation is assembling this new network as part of its commitment to help cities tackle the burning health issues of our time – cardiovascular disease and health disparities – by using data and analytics to reengineer reactive care systems into proactive health , predictive and preventive systems that keep people healthy. IN New York Citythe initiative is run in partnership with New York University School of Global Public Health; public hospital system NYC Health + Hospitals; and city health authorities.
Dr José Pagán, Professor of Public Health Policy and Management at the NYU School of Global Public Health and Chairman of the Board of Directors of NYC Health + Hospitals, New York City public hospital system, said: “Where people live and work New York, and their degree of social and economic disadvantage, have a greater impact on the risk of developing cardiovascular disease than their access to health care. This initiative will give us better insights into the cardiovascular health of New Yorkers in an effort to identify the most pressing issues to address and shape our city’s policies.”
The initiative could help urban policymakers better target health resources toward interventions that can have the greatest impact on heart health.
Dr. Mitchell KatzPresident and CEO of NYC Health + Hospitals, said, “Health equity is central to the mission and values of NYC Health + Hospitals. Finding new ways to use data on the social determinants of health and cardiovascular disease can help us inform our work and delivery on the promise to enable all New Yorkers to live their healthiest lives.”
Juan Lavista FerresChief Data Scientist at Microsoft, said: “Combining anonymized population data from many different sources enables us to use machine learning to get down to the street level in estimating cardiovascular risk levels. If applied properly , this could revolutionize preventive interventions in heart health.”
The Novartis Foundation will support the implementation of the initiative through global coordination and pooling of urban population health and cardiovascular health expertise. He will work with city authorities and their partners to translate data insights into population health roadmaps and share learnings through AI4HealthyCities summits.
The NYU School of Global Public Health will lead research in collaboration with Microsoft AI for Health by bringing together data on cardiovascular disease and the social determinants of heart health in New York City. Microsoft AI for Health will provide data management and analytics tools.
AI4HealthyCities is part of the Novartis Foundation’s global vision to improve urban heart health and narrow health disparities. It builds on the Novartis Foundation’s proven CARDIO4Cities approach, which reimagined a city-wide response to overall cardiovascular risk reduction, in three initial pilot cities (São Paulo, Dakar and Ulaanbaatar). In each city, the initiative tripled blood pressure control rates, sometimes pushing control rates to levels better than those achieved in European countries. The Novartis Foundation is currently expanding the approach to include other cardiovascular risk factors, such as high cholesterol, diabetes and obesity, in São Paulo. DakarAND Ho Chi Minh City.
About the Novartis Foundation
The Novartis Foundation is a non-profit organization based in Switzerland. For more than 40 years, we have helped improve the health of low-income populations, first supporting the elimination of diseases in areas such as leprosy and malaria. Today, we address the burning issues of our time, cardiovascular disease and health disparity. We take a population health approach, which means bringing together existing but disjointed data to help authorities understand the root causes of inequitable health outcomes and determine the best ways and best partners to address them. correct them. This empowers governments to transform their health systems from reactive to proactive, predictive and preventive and achieve health equity among the populations they serve.
www.novartisfoundation.org
The Novartis Foundation is on Twitter at @NovartisFDN
Novartis Foundation Media Relations
Contact: Carolyn Canham
Phone: +41 79 334 4325
Email: [email protected]
1 https://www.who.int/health-topics/cardiovascular-diseases#tab=tab_1
SOURCE Novartis Foundation
