There are approximately 140,000 ICD-10 codes used to categorize procedures and diagnoses. Consisting of six letters and numbers, ICD codes are used by providers, coders, IT professionals, insurance carriers and government agencies to uniformly note diseases on health records, track epidemiological trends and assist in medical reimbursement decisions.

But what about social determinants of health (SDOH)? There are nine SDOH Z codes, but as you might expect, they are fairly general.

Enter the Gravity Project. This collaborative public-private initiative launched in May 2019 with the goal of developing consensus-driven data standards to support the collection, use and exchange of SDOH data. It is hoped that the collection and use of this data will help to advance health equity.

Evelyn Gallego, CEO at EMI Advisors LLC and Senior Advisor at Gravity Project explained the project’s goals, technology and workstream to the GaHIN Board on March 23. Ms. Gallego explained that the Gravity Project convenes stakeholders from both the health and human services ecosystem to help design the right data standards for SDOH data sharing.

The project is testing and validating standardized SDOH data for use in patient care, care coordination between health and human services sectors, population health management, public health, value-based payment and clinical research. The data standards will help exchange patient-level SDOH data across four clinical activities:

There are numerous opportunities to participate in the Gravity Project, including participating in testing as a referral source, care coordination platform and referral recipient. To learn more, view the Gravity Project presentation. If you are interested in participating in testing, email gravityproject@emiadvisors.net.