Getting involved
Q: Is there a project summary of the research I could share with my supervisors?
A: The University of Washington (UW) has developed a platform, Chart, that combines location-specific assessment of health risks associated with extreme heat at a census tract level with location-specific recommendations for interventions to reduce heat-health risks. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has funded UW to conduct a randomized-controlled trial of the Chart tool and its effectiveness is supporting heat action planning in local health departments (LHDs). UW is working with partners at the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO) and Public Health Seattle King County (PHSKC) to recruit 30 sites to participate in the trial. Enrolled sites will be randomized to the Chart tool (15 sites) or an informational intervention (15 sites). Each site will provide information about current and planned heat activities in their jurisdiction at the beginning and end of the study. The study will last one year. Sites randomized to the intervention will engage in interviews after study completion to learn more about implementation of the Chart tool. All sites will be compensated for their time and participation. LHDs can visit this web page to learn more and can express interest here.
Q: Who can participate in the study?
A: LHDs where public health activities are managed at a local level (not exclusively managed at a state level) across the continental US can participate.
Q: Is there a cost to the LHD to participate?
A: There is no cost to the LHD. In fact, in recognition of LHD’s time participating in the study, participating LHDs will receive payments for enrollment and participation ($1,000 on enrollment, $1,500 on completion of the pre-intervention survey, and $2,500 on completion of the post-intervention survey). There are some administrative steps to enable the UW to compensate an LHD, but they are not onerous. The money will be the LHD’s to spend – there is no obligation placed on the funds.
Q: What is the ideal position at LHDs for taking the lead on this? Health educator, epidemiologist, program managers, etc.?
A: That depends on how the LHD is organized. The platform we are testing supports heat action planning, specifically making decisions regarding interventions to implement based on a risk assessment and an assessment of available interventions and their effectiveness, cost, ease of implementation, and amenity values. The tool was designed to support multiple roles at an LHD, with the primary user in a role that combines risk assessment activities (which could include epidemiologists) with planning and implementation (which could include health educators). Regardless of who the primary user is, any person at the site may have access to the tool to support their role in the heat action planning process.
Q: What level of leadership needs to sign off on the LHD’s involvement?
A: This will vary by LHD. We ask that interested departments determine this for themselves and confirm that they are approved to take on the expectations of the project before participating.
Q: Are you looking for participants who already have a climate adaptation/action plan/heat intervention they are already pursuing, or is the study preference for areas where they are still in an open/assessment phase?
A: We are open to LHDs at any stage of heat action planning.
Q: Is the project application available at grants.gov?
A: No, the application to be a part of the trial is administered through the University of Washington. LHDs interested in participating can express interest here.
Q: What is the deadline for completing the form? And what happens next?
A: The deadline for confirming ability to participate is August 15th. After that date, we will randomize interested LHDs to select participants and inform LHD representatives of their status. The research team will then enroll the selected LHDs, conduct the pre-intervention survey, and then randomize participating LHDs into intervention and control groups. We anticipate the research will take place between September 2025 and September 2026.
While participating
Q: What legal documents need to be signed?
A: There is an informed consent form that individuals from participating LHDs will sign, saying that they understand the expectations, benefits, and risks of participating in the project.
Q: Are we required to enter data into anything other than the pre/post survey?
A: Other than the study-specific assessments, there are no requirements for data entry in other systems or venues.
Q: Can we decline to be paid and participate in the study for free?
A: An LHD could decide to not accept the compensation.
Q: Our department covers a small city. Could we partner with a larger region and participate in the study together in order to cover more area?
A: Yes, though one health department would be the study site for the purpose of the study. You could partner with neighboring jurisdictions as you normally would, sharing information and tool access, but we would gather information from one primary contact.
Q: Is there an LHD that has already used Chart that can provide feedback and/or guidance?
A: Yes, Public Health Seattle King County is a partner in the study and available for further dialogue as needed.
Q: Would the LHD be able to interact with the Chart team to conduct any bespoke analysis for heat action planning? For example, might the LHD be able to get heat maps from the past 5 or 10 years so they could see evidence as to why interventions are needed?
A: The Chart team will introduce the platform to study participants randomized to the intervention. These sites will have the opportunity to review the model for their jurisdiction and, if interested, to provide additional data to incorporate into the model (e.g., more granular health data than are publicly available). Participating sites in the intervention can request bespoke model updates and outputs such as historical heat risk estimates and visualizations of how risk has changed over time to support their heat action planning.
The Chart tool
Q: Is Chart available free of charge to local health departments?
A: For this study, the platform will be provided free of charge to local health departments that are randomized to the intervention. We are hoping to provide more general access to the tool as soon as possible, and are exploring strategies for free or sponsored access.
Q: How well does Chart’s risk assessment perform in comparison with other tools for assessing heat vulnerability?
A: Chart’s risk estimates are based on local hazard (extreme heat) conditions as well as vulnerability factors identified in the literature and population. We have compared Chart’s risk estimates against observations of heat-related illnesses in Washington state, where the tool was first developed, and Chart’s estimates are more highly correlated with heat-related illness incidence than the CDC’s Social Vulnerability Index (SVI) and Washington State’s Environmental Health Disparity (EHD) ranking.