Research

Our work is designed to be applied directly and immediately to the work at hand and the communities served. In addition, Equity Analytics Group is actively engaged in contributing to a broader community through publishing research in leading scientific and academic journals and presenting at industry-specific conferences, often with clients as our co-authors.

Racial Treatment Disparities for Traumatic Injuries

Do we all receive the same quality of healthcare when calling 911? Most healthcare providers don’t decide to provide racial minorities with substandard care, yet there is clear evidence that treatment disparities take place. This work was recently awarded the Top Trauma Research Award at the World Trauma Symposium Conference in Atlanta. Read our peer-reviewed published research on racial treatment disparities when Oregonians call Emergency Medical Services for healthcare treatment after having a traumatic injury, and watch as our work is discussed as the featured research at the Journal or Emergency Medical Services (JEMS) webcast titled "Disparities in EMS Care: Best Practices in Assessment, Current Findings, and Suggestions for Improvement."

Systemic Risk, Resilience, and Circular Economy Networks in Washington State

To prepare for and navigate through times of crisis and emergency, resilience hubs have sprung up in areas most impacted by climate, health, and environmental disparities. However, what often gets overlooked is the influence of community-driven circular economies.

By comparing geographic patterns of risk and resilience to a state-wide network of local circular economies focused on reuse, repair, share, compost, etc. in Washington compounding threats to community resilience as well as opportunities for network development, capacity-building, and funding were identified.

This analysis resulted in an interactive map that demonstrates where investment and assistance are more and less concentrated; helps visualize alternative material-based, circular economies as “work already being done” by communities; builds on publicly available data to gain insight into systemic risks and threats to resilience; and shows the context in which locally-run circular initiatives operate, including their respective risks and threats to community resilience.

The resulting map and analysis is available here.

Sexual Health Promotion Programs

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) disproportionately affects Black men who have sex with men (MSM), yet there are few evidence-based interventions specifically designed for Black MSM communities. In response, we were part of a team that created and analyzed an experimental educational intervention called Real Talk, a technology-delivered, sexual health program for Black MSM. Read about the peer-reviewed published results here.

Obesity Bias in Emergency Medical Services Treatment

In the US, Individuals with obesity live with significant stigma which often negatively impacts fundamental aspects of their lives including education and job attainment, earning power, mental and physical health, and also the quality of the healthcare they receive. We investigated if, and how severe, individuals with obesity receive substandard care when calling 911 for Emergency Medical Services treatment. Read our findings in the forthcoming book “International Handbook of the Demography of Obesity published by Switzerland AG: Springer Nature.

Multnomah County Central Courthouse Construction Project Equity Analysis

The ability to compare contract award amounts
and hours worked by race/ethnicity, gender, craft, job level, region of residence, and pay rate for publicly funded construction projects allows for rapid and comprehensive assessment of the degrees to which diversity-related goals are being met, and evaluation of the relative progress towards equitable distribution of work and wages made from one project to another.

We believe that access to these metrics in clear and easy to understand figures at regular intervals in a project’s timeline will be helpful a variety of audiences and will encourage public engagement and understanding of public works.

In this report we present our analysis of contract values and workforce hours (as of June 2019) for the Multnomah County Central Courthouse Project (MCCCP), a publicly funded construction project currently in process..