Jvion on Tuesday unveiled its new COVID Vaccination Prioritization Index, designed to help guide the distribution of vaccines to communities whose social determinants of health make them more vulnerable.

WHY IT MATTERS
The new tool is an update to Jvion's COVID Community Vulnerability Map, which was launched in March at the beginning of the pandemic.

Based on CDC guidelines and a range of socioeconomic factors, Jvion uses its clinical AI technology to index communities by their priority level for vaccination.

It takes into account how prevalent comorbidities that could increase the risk of COVID-19 complications are in a given community; the proportion of the population there over age 65; the number of people who work in jobs that put them at higher risk of exposure; and a variety of social determinant and environmental factors.

VPI uses CDC's recommendations for who should be prioritized for the limited supply of vaccines – first healthcare workers and long-term care facility residents, followed by essential workers, the elderly and those with medical conditions. 

At each step the new tool can help public health officials determine which locations need more vaccines based on the makeup of the community, according to Jvion and help providers target their vaccination outreach to their patients at greatest risk.

In addition to accounting for SDOH factors – factoring in the air pollution rates, the proportion of low-income jobs, potential for food insecurity and more – the vulnerability map now rates counties and ZIP codes on a scale from 1 to 6, based on how many residents are in each of the CDC's various prioritization cohorts. 

Jvion has sent Patient Vulnerability Lists to its provider and payer customers, offering analytics insights into patients and plan members who may be more at risk of severe outcomes if infected with COVID-19. Those lists will be updated to help highlight those individuals who should be prioritized for vaccination.

THE LARGER TREND
Jvion first released the Community Vulnerability Map in the very early days of the pandemic. By helping assess population risk of disease severity down to the census-block level, the goal was to quickly help local health departments prioritize limited resources for response planning.

In May, the company built an AI-powered assessment tool to help employers, health systems and government agencies gain insights into when and how they could reopen during the coronavirus pandemic.

The Return to Work Assessment – along with the vulnerability map, the vaccination priority index and Jvion's Inpatient Triage Assessment – are all powered by Jvion CORE, a secure and scalable repository, built on Microsoft Azure, that includes clinical, socioeconomic and experiential data for 30 million individuals. 

ON THE RECORD
"The past year has been difficult for us all, but particularly so for our society's most vulnerable members: the elderly, the sick and the unemployed, racial and ethnic minorities, rural Americans, and the hard-working people on the frontlines," said Jvion Chief Product Officer Dr. John Showalter in a statement. "Now that vaccines are here, we're proud to be able to help these people get the protection they need as quickly as possible."

Twitter: @MikeMiliardHITN
Email the writer: mike.miliard@himssmedia.com
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