Precision Population Health
Geomarkers are powerful predictors of a population’s health. What’s missing are the methods and tools to make reproducible geomarker assessment widely accessible and easily used by biomedical researchers.
Examples of geomarkers include:
- Air pollution
- Water pollution
- Housing characteristics
- Community material deprivation
- Crime and violence
- Access to community resources and healthcare
- Climate change, extreme weather, natural disasters, wildfires
- Greenspace and land use
- Community resilience and social capital
Access to geomarker data opens the door for going from precision medicine to precision population health. To get there, we must overcome a few hurdles. Precise geolocation information is considered protected health information, which presents obstacles to data sharing and analysis.
It’s also difficult to automatically link geomarker data to existing studies and electronic health record (EHR) databases.
Curated, Public Geomarker Library
With funding from an R01 grant, we developed a curated and standardized library of geomarker assessment tools that researchers can use for efficient, automated and reproducible linkage of geomarkers to their own data. We are developing a generalized framework that can be used to operationalize spatiotemporal exposure assessment data, tools and knowledge.
Our research envisions a sustainable resource to fuel the advancement of precision population health. To this end, we have worked to:
- Create an initial library based on software containerization and automated metadata collection and publishing
- Conduct a test implementation within an existing electronic health record informatics data pipeline
- Obtain feedback from users and consumers
- Create a framework for geomarker tool development that allows any user to interact with the software in a consistent and user-friendly way
- Allow public toolset development so anyone can provide feedback and modifications or additions
The software, framework and library are free and open source. We want geomarker data and methods to be more findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable (FAIR).
Air Pollution’s Impact
Multiple studies from Cincinnati Children’s researchers already show the link between air pollution and mental health issues in children.
Our current work focuses on studying the relationships between:
- Daily changes in ambient fine particulate matter and pediatric psychiatric exacerbations
- Early life exposures to air pollution and increased risk of mental disorders during adolescence
- Community characteristics and increased susceptibility to these air pollution-related health effects
For example, one of our recent studies found that exposure to airborne lead early in life is linked to anxiety and behavioral problems in adolescence.
Our partnership with the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee gives us access to powerful and precise computer systems to further our work.
We believe this novel work represents a first step toward allocating future regulatory efforts and resources and developing enhanced primary and secondary prevention and mitigation strategies.
