Addressing the Social Determinants of Health With AI, Partnerships

In the healthcare industry today, it is widely understood that optimal health outcomes require addressing patients’ clinical and non-clinical needs – their social determinants of health.

So much of individuals’ health is determined by factors beyond the doctor’s office. Where someone lives, works, and plays directly impacts her well-being, and it’s critical for health systems to gather and understand their patients’ social determinants data.

However, for many healthcare organizations, it can be challenging to know where to start with addressing patients’ social determinants. A lack of industry standards makes it difficult to collect and share this essential information, and healthcare entities may not be equipped to address unmet social needs.

UVA implemented a real-time artificial intelligence platform that integrated directly with hospital EHRs. The platform leverages natural language processing tools to extract social determinants and clinical risk factors from unstructured notes for more timely interventions.