Racial Disparities in Pediatric Acute Leukemia

Background

Assessing the socioeconomic status (SES) of Black and White leukemia patients is essential to evaluate how race and acuity of presentation affect patient treatment outcomes. Tyler will employ ArcGIS geocoding technology to assemble patient-level clinical and demographic data from the US Census and America Community Survey resources and create a visual representation for mapping and spatial analysis. An address locator will be developed with ArcGIS to batch-search patient demographic information and estimate SES based on patient location and neighborhood-based averages. Median household income, rate of parental educational attainment, racial makeup of neighborhood, rate of home ownership and rate of single parent households will be correlated with race, health insurance status, acuity at presentation and inpatient induction mortality to determine whether any of these factors explain the increased acuity at presentation and associated increased mortality of Black patients with leukemia.

Project Goal

By reviewing patient charts to gather information and generating a map based on patient SES, Tyler will generate a visual representation of the patient demographics to more effectively analyze detailed patient information and correlate these factors to leukemia patient outcomes. Tyler will travel to research facilities including Salt Lake City, Houston, Little Rock, Jackson, etc. to collect data for the study. Through attending weekly leukemia and lymphoma clinical meetings Tyler will learn about current clinical care of pediatric oncology patients. Working with Dr. Winestone will provide a foundation in researching healthcare disparities and developing solutions for institutional healthcare reform to help patients overcome these barriers and attain equal treatment outcomes.