A new tool to improve COVID-19 vaccine access

February 21, 2023 – Researchers at Ariadne Labs, a joint center for health innovation at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, were part of a group that has built an easy-to-use, online tool to improve access to COVID-19 vaccines.

The Vaccine Equity Planner was described in a February 3 Becker’s Hospital Review article. Ariadne Labs collaborated on building the planner with Boston Children’s Hospital and Google.

In a new study, the researchers identified vaccine deserts across the U.S.—geographic areas where a vaccination site is more than a 15-minute drive away. The lack of nearby sites poses a challenge, according to the study. “Surveys have found that 15% of unvaccinated people are concerned about the difficulty of traveling to a vaccination site, and 20% are concerned about the need to take time off work, which would be exacerbated by long travel times,” the authors wrote.

To address the issue, the researchers developed an online tool that identifies vaccine deserts as well as potential vaccination sites that could fill the gaps, such as places of worship, schools, and retail sites. The goal of the tool is to provide the necessary data for public health planners to improve equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines.

Read the Becker’s Hospital Review article: A new tool to reduce COVID-19 vaccine ‘deserts’

Read the study: Identifying COVID-19 Vaccine Deserts and Ways to Reduce Them: A Digital Tool to Support Public Health Decision-Making