Inpatient Stroke Database for Evaluation of Equity in Process and Outcome (ISDEEPO)

Project Description Narrative:

Stroke is the fifth leading cause of death in the U.S. Racial disparity in cerebrovascular mortality leads to about 2,750 excess African American lives lost annually. Among middle-aged Americans, rural residents experienced an increase in cerebrovascular mortality between 2013 and 2019. There are multiple sources of the racial and geographic health disparities.Disparities in stroke patients and inpatient processes have not been systematically studied in southeastern Wisconsin.

This project aims to extract stroke-specific clinically relevant information from the existing Clinical Research Data Warehouse (CDRW). The CRDW is a large database generated from clinical electronic health records across Froedtert and the Medical College of Wisconsin health network, updated weekly and managed by the Clinical & Translational Science Institute of Southeast Wisconsin (CTSI).

This project aims to evaluate racial and geographic inequities in inpatient mortality and processes of care among a multi-year cohort of persons hospitalized for stroke. Furthermore, researchers will examine the resiliency of equity in outcomes of stroke-specific care processes during the COVID-19 surge.

Critical examination of biases in healthcare outcomes and within the healthcare system can lead to focused interventions to rectify inequities, promote advocacy within the health system to help correct potential existing inequities, and justify the allocation of additional research efforts and funding toward reducing health inequities.