Abstract | April 9, 2023

Addressing COVID-19 Vaccine Uptake in East Texas through Community Health Worker Engagement and the Community Health Integrated Response Portal (CHIRP)

Korosh Bahrami, BS

Rachel David, BSA, Master's Student, UTMB School for Public and Population Health, Galveston, TX; Sriharika Gottipolu, BS, Medical Student, UTMB John Sealy School of Medicine, Galveston, TX; Irtiza Ahmed, BS, Medical Student, UTMB John Sealy School of Medicine, Galveston, TX; Isabelle Bergman, BS, MD/PhD Student, UTMB John Sealy School of Medicine, Galveston, TX; Claudia Sanchez, BSA, Medical Student, UTMB John Sealy School of Medicine, Galveston, TX; Michael Goodman, DrPH, Division of Infectious Disease, UTMB; Stephen Molldrem, PhD, Bioethics and Health Humanities, UTMB

Learning Objectives

  1. 1. Explain the purpose of the Community Health Integrated Response Portal (CHIRP)
  2. 2. Describe how Community Health Workers (CHWs) have used the Community Health Integrated Response Portal (CHIRP) to guide their outreach
  3. 3. Identify the role that CHWs play in under-resourced areas

Background: Inequities in the COVID-19 vaccine rollout have created disparities in uptake across the United States, leading to a risk of COVID-19 immunity being unevenly distributed. Compounding this issue of accessibility is vaccine hesitancy. Particularly in under-resourced areas, Community Health Workers (CHWs) play key roles in ensuring the distribution of high-quality information by working with community members and trusted community leaders. In East Texas, a digital health platform called the Community Health Integrated Response Portal (CHIRP) has been developed to help CHWs utilize vaccination rate data, community partner data, and CDC Social Vulnerability Index (SVI) data in their outreach efforts in an integrated and semi-automated fashion. We are conducting an ongoing evaluation study of CHIRP users and designers. The purpose of this interview-based study is to better understand the work of CHWs in a 100-county area in East Texas community who work with CHIRP and to assess the effectiveness of CHIRP as a tool to mobilize data to improve COVID-19 vaccine uptake. Methods: 16 interviews with 10 participants in two rounds of interviews have been conducted since February 2022. Participants are comprised of 4 CHIRP designers, 2 CHW managers, and 4 CHWs. These are members of the core team involved in implementation of the CHIRP intervention in the 100-county region in East Texas that is covered by Texas AHEC East. Results: Most CHWs consistently use the various mapping features in CHIRP to guide their outreach to specific areas of their assigned territories. These maps include CDC SVI data and COVID-19 vaccination rate data by ZIP code. CHWs also use information on the map to locate community partners and to “drop pins” with information about newly identified community partners. Furthermore, CHIRP allows CHWs to enter data about who they work with that can be accessed by managers and designers for program improvements and reports to the funder. Conclusions: CHIRP is a digital public health platform that allows for the identification of high-risk regions and tracking of CHW activities regarding COVID vaccination. Data in CHIRP allow for flexibility and accessibility that may facilitate the identification and response to future public health threats.

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