E-Mail BOSTON - A new analysis by researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) offers a novel perspective on the disproportionate impact that COVID-19 has had on people of color, low-income populations, and other structurally disadvantaged groups. Their findings, published in a research letter to the Journal of General Internal Medicine, emphasize the urgency of addressing inequities that have been exposed by the coronavirus pandemic. "At Mass General, we are deeply interested in uncovering disparities and then fixing them," says cardiologist Jason H. Wasfy, MD, MPhil, lead author of the research letter, director of Outcomes Research at the MGH Heart Center and a medical director of the Massachusetts General Physicians Organization (MGPO). In pursuit of that mission, Wasfy and several MGH colleagues decided to analyze the socioeconomic and demographic characteristics of patients tested for COVID-19 at 14 sites within the Mass General Brigham system from the earliest days of the pandemic until mid-December 2020. Those sites include not only hospitals also but community health centers and urgent care clinics. Combining the results of both inpatient and outpatient testing for COVID-19 distinguished this analysis from most earlier inquiries, which primarily focused on inpatient testing. "That made our sample more representative," says Wasfy. "It's a more valid way of looking at the total effect of COVID-19 on all patients."