Data Gap

A review and summary of Rural Health Scholar research impacted by gaps in data on Martha's Vineyard.

Island Health Care

Key Data Gap Topics

Scholar Observations

  • There is a lack of consistent data around who is considered homeless and how many homeless individuals are on MV,  2015 RHS Presentation 
  • Long history of under-reporting the Brazilian population on MV,  2020 RHS Presentation 
    • Estimated between 5,000 and 6,000 Brazilians, mostly from Minas Gerais
    • School data supports these metrics

Scholar Recommendations

  • Recommended a systematic way to track the elderly population,  2011 RHS Presentation 
    • Could start with an annual home visit beginning after a person turns 70
    • Create a community list to serve as a sample frame for community calls/wellness visits
  • Recommended regular collection and review of SUD data,  2016 RHS Presentation 

Summary of the Community's response so far No updates to share at this time (6.17.2022)

Methodologies / Data Challenges

Scholar Recommendations

  • Recommended a better breakdown of drug type/source in police and medical records,  2016 RHS Presentation 
  • Recommended consistent EMR coding methods (MVH and EMS),  2016 RHS Presentation 
  • Recommended SUD data can be collected from the 6 police departments, birth certificate data, MVH, MV EMS, Duke’s County Jail,  2016 RHS Presentation 
    • But combining these data is not possible and each encounter with one of these stakeholders doesn’t equal a single individual, it could be one individual having several encounters with the same entity, 2016 RHS Presentation
    • Data coding inconsistencies for recording SUD
    • There’s no “in the moment” test like a breathalyzer for drugs
    • Historically there’s been a problem with death certificate data, it’s hard to determine indirect causes of death or co-morbidities
    • MVH data also had coding inconsistencies
    • EMS data is manually collected, no digital pathway to recall data
  • Recommended better collaboration and communication among the entities that record this type of data on MV,  2016 RHS Presentation ‡
  • Recommended quarterly centralized reporting to the MV Drug Taskforce from 6 PDs, 4 EMS, and MVH,  2016 RHS Presentation 
  • Recommended coordination with the MV Commission to obtain accurate population data for the Brazilian immigrant population (for equitable resource allocation),  2020 RHS Presentation 

Summary of the Commuity's response so far

There is starting to be better general communication of service delivery across sectors through the Hub Table model, this could be a forum to discuss or plant the seed for unified data collection. The SUD Coalition is another avenue.

Last updated 6.17.2022