Addressing Social Determinants of Health With Data Interoperability

Healthcare has traditionally been an insular sector, unaccustomed to the kind of broad-based, multi-stakeholder cooperation, and collaboration that the healthcare consumer increasingly expects.

But access to a complete picture of the patient – including the behavioral and environmental factors that influence daily health – is critical to realizing the shared benefits of value-based, holistic care.

The challenge extends far beyond service efficiencies that can be gleaned from the patient encounter. Consider: medical care only accounts for between 10% and 20% of health outcomes, whereas the physical environment, social determinants, and behavioral factors account for 80% to 90% of outcomes.

Viewed strictly through the lens of technology, interoperability resources can bridge the gaps in care that are the result of insular data systems and inconsistent data formats, but to integrate community based, non-traditional environmental data into the patient record, a higher order of cross-system interoperability is required.