One of the key parts of the Whole Communities–Whole Health study is its commitment to providing actionable data to participants so they and other community organizations can make changes that support better overall health.

Whole Communities–Whole Health is a 5-year cohort study that looks at the different variables that affect childhood health. But what is a cohort study exactly? Psychology Professor David Schnyer explains.

The information apps collect is extremely powerful because it enables technology to help make our lives better, safer, healthier, and — especially in times like we’ve experienced over the past year — more socially connected. For instance, apps have helped contact tracers with COVID-19 response.

Nursing associate professor Karen Johnson and assistant professor Whitney Thurman explain why they think the CDC was too quick to lift masking requirements post-vaccine.

UT researchers took the state-of-the-art Vocus "Sniffer" on the road across Central Texas to find out whether some people are at greater risk than others of breathing in polluted air.

Karen Johnson, an associate professor in the School of Nursing and Whole Communities–Whole Health researcher, shares her experience administering COVID-19 vaccinations.

Karen Johnson, who is a public health nurse, an associate professor in the School of Nursing and a Whole Communities–Whole Health researcher, says she felt powerless to do anything to help amid the pandemic as patients were overflowing critical care units. So when she got the email about the vaccine, she was the first to sign up to volunteer.

The School of Nursing launched two vaccination delivery programs in March that provide vaccines to underserved Austin communities. The two programs, Vaccine Administration Mobile Operations (VAMOS), which is co-sponsored by Whole Communities–Whole Health, and Vaccinate, No Waste (VaxNow), were created by people working in vaccine operations after they realized some Austin communities could not access UT’s mass vaccination hub.

Using publicly available data, researchers in the Cockrell School of Engineering and Whole Communities–Whole Health have quantified the many ways day-to-day activity has changed since the pandemic began, including real estate activity, traffic, retail spending and job postings.

This week, UT researchers, including experts from Whole Communities–Whole Health, released a new online dashboard measuring all the ways the COVID-19 pandemic has changed life in Austin, including transportation, small business revenue and the housing market.