About this chart
This is the interactive version of the manuscript's burden-readiness
decision space. Each dot is one census tract in the
workforce-constrained county pool, placed by digital readiness
(Digital Divide Index, x axis) and cardiometabolic burden (composite
z score, y axis).
The classification
The pool holds counties with no cardiologist in 2023 or a declining
number of cardiologists per 100,000 residents over 2010 to 2023.
Within it, two anchored cuts form a two-by-two matrix:
high burden : burden z > 0 (national mean)
higher readiness : DDI ≤ 18.8 (national median)
DEPLOYMENT PRIORITY = high burden AND higher readiness
INVESTMENT PRIORITY = high burden AND lower readiness
Ranks come from a priority score: burden and DDI are standardized
within the pool, then combined as burden minus DDI for deployment
priority and burden plus DDI for investment priority. These labels
indicate relative priorities under the chosen thresholds. They do not
establish readiness for any specific intervention.
Setting your own thresholds
The Thresholds control moves the cuts. The presets are the national
percentiles the manuscript's threshold analysis uses: burden above the
mean, in the top quartile or in the top decile, crossed with a median,
quartile or decile split of the DDI. A quartile or decile split leaves
a middle band of tracts in neither group. The priority scores are fixed,
so a stricter cut keeps the study ordering and drops the tracts that
miss it, while a looser cut admits tracts in their score order. The
counts in the header follow your settings and include Kentucky and
Pennsylvania.
Restricting the view
Search a state, county or metropolitan area to restrict the view.
Tracts outside the area fade, the counts switch to the area, and the
Leading tracts list ranks the area's tracts under the current cuts.
Metropolitan areas follow the 2023 core-based statistical area
definitions carried in the Area Health Resources Files.
The burden composite
Ten conditions and risk factors from CDC PLACES (hypertension, high
cholesterol, coronary heart disease, stroke, diabetes, obesity,
smoking, physical inactivity, short sleep, binge drinking), from the
2025 census tract release, standardized across tracts and averaged
into one z score.
Kentucky and Pennsylvania
CDC suppressed nine of the ten measures at the tract level in these
two states, so their burden score rests on short sleep alone. Their
tracts keep group membership and count toward the totals,
but they are not plotted here and are excluded from the ranked
lists.
Using the chart
Hover any dot for a mini profile; click it for the full tract panel.
The legend chips show or hide each group. The Leading tracts list
shows the 10, 25, 50 or 100 highest-ranked tracts in each group under
the current thresholds and scope, spotlights them on the chart, and
downloads as a CSV.
Robustness
The manuscript tests this framework in nine sensitivity analyses,
spanning alternative readiness measures, workforce definitions,
thresholds, and a geographic access credit, and checks each input
against an independent source. Classifications were broadly stable;
a six-indicator readiness index placed tracts in the same group about
93% of the time.
Data sources and accessibility
HRSA Area Health Resources Files (2010-2023), CDC PLACES (2025
release), and the Purdue Digital Divide Index (2022-2024, built from
ACS and FCC data). Both dashboards were designed to meet WCAG 2.1
Level AA. The companion county atlas maps every
view at county and tract level.