Translating Social Determinants of Health Into Clinical Action

The following is a guest blog post by Anton Berisha, MD, Senior Director, Clinical Analytics and Innovation, Health Care, LexisNexis Risk Solutions. The medical community recognizes the importance of social determinants of health (SDOH) – social, economic and environmental conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work and age that impact their health – as significant and direct risk factors for a large number of health care outcomes. The negative outcomes include stress, mental health and behavioral disorders, alcoholism and substance abuse, to name a few. Negative SDOH worsen a slew of major chronic conditions, from hypertension and Coronary Artery Disease to obesity; they also lead to lower patient engagement and medication adherence while increasing low-intensity ER visits and hospital admissions and readmissions. In fact, a study shows that medical care determines only 20% of overall health outcomes while social, economic and environmental factors determine about 50% of overall health. The National Quality Forum, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and World Health Organization have all acknowledged the importance of addressing SDOH in health care. Not all SDOH are “created equal” When it comes to SDOH, there is a misconception that all data regarding a person’s lifestyle, environment, situation and behaviors relate to their health. Although there is a myriad of basic demographic data, survey data and other Electronic Health Records (EHR) data ava...
Source: EMR and HIPAA - Category: Information Technology Authors: Tags: Digital Health Healthcare Healthcare Analytics HealthCare IT Anton Berisha EHR SDOH LexisNexis LexisNexis Health Care Social Determinants of Health Source Type: blogs