Connecting the Dots: How the Sloan Lab Maps Health Disparities

Photo by Megan Mulliner

After completing her undergraduate degree, Dr. Chantel Sloan found herself in genetic epidemiology. During her PhD, she realized that she was more interested in the broader driving factors of the diseases she saw than the genetics of the diseases alone. Her mentor connected her with the geography department where Sloan fell in love with mapping data. She now combines this passion with her epidemiology skills as a professor in the Department of Public Health.

The lab’s main focus is to train students on epidemiology, specifically looking at how location impacts health. Sloan delves into many infectious diseases but concentrates her efforts primarily on respiratory diseases like COVID-19, the flu, or RSV. Sloan also compiles mapping projects for public health issues. Anything from opioid rates in wastewater to driving distances in the Navajo Nation, Sloan can map it.

For example, a current project seeks to determine how homeschooled health practices differ from those taught in public school environments. The homeschool group is rarely studied, and statistics like their vaccination rates are often underreported. Once all the data is collected, Sloan and her students will map this group’s health trends.

Due to the more expansive nature of her skill set, Sloan and her students collaborate with several departments on campus: biology, law, statistics, computer science, etc. Her mapping projects look at broader data to create easier to process visualizations. Sloan and her students are currently working with neuroscience to look at the effect of air pollution on neurodevelopmental diseases.

“I've never been a person who likes being in a box,” Sloan said. “I've always found the most fascinating thing is finding cross-connections between fields and trying to see things more on a systems level. This kind of makes me a Jill of all trades, master of none, but I can talk to anybody.”

Photo by Chantel Sloan

Sloan also works with a health information exchange in El Paso, Texas, that collects all the health data in local hospitals. Her compilations make it easier for data to move between physicians in different hospitals. The data also clarifies diagnoses and speeds communication should a patient go to a different hospital than the one they normally visit.

“Students who do research with me know that I tend to have multiple paths that I let them select,” Sloan said. “We have a variety of projects in different stages that they can work on. Occasionally, I have a student come in who has their own awesome idea, and it happens to fit with my interests or abilities. My favorite part is watching them figure out what they do and don't like and what they want to carry forward.” A lot of the students Sloan has mentored have leveraged their mapping and analytical skills to find jobs or progress in academia.

Grace Christensen (PH ’25), has presented research focusing on oncology in the United States at several conferences with Sloan. “Dr. Sloan was one of the first professors that really saw my academic potential,” Christensen said. “Being in this lab has allowed me to lengthen my potential more than I originally thought. I now have the capacity to attack hard questions and study new things.”

Lucy Kaufman (PH ’24), has worked with Sloan on the homeschooling study and has been involved with the lab for two years. “I have been able to see myself grow over that time with her help,” said Kaufman. “Dr. Sloan is a really good mentor. She has comforted me when I've been frustrated about research or about life in general.”

Sloan finds that revelation is key to her research. “We are trying to lift whole communities at once,” she said. “I tell my students you are directly serving the impoverished and the marginalized. You are as entitled to revelation as any artist and painter.”

To get involved in Sloan’s lab, you can contact her at chantel.sloan@byu.edu.