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With the healthcare industry’s recent push to find new ways to leverage social determinants of health data (SDOH) in combination with clinical data, we took the opportunity to sit down with Shirelle King, GaHIN’s program manager of social care integration, to get her perspective. King leads GeorgiaUnify, GaHIN’s newest product offering that facilitates closed-loop referrals and supports whole-person care by integrating social data with clinical data to better care outcomes.
What are your thoughts on the importance of SDOH data?
Socio-economic factors, such as access to transportation, housing, nutritious foods, and more, account for the largest piece of one's overall health. I’m glad to see more organizations within the healthcare community start to acknowledge the role SDOH plays. As we continue to make advancements in traditional clinical environments, health-related social needs must be a part of those discussions.
What barriers prevent clinical resources from accessing SDOH?
Although clinicians recognize the benefits of gaining access to SDOH data, the biggest barrier lies in their limited ability to do so. Much like the automation of clinical data exchange took time and the evolution of standardization, I believe the collection and exchange of social data will follow a similar path. We will first need to encourage and incentivize providers to adopt technology to collect the data and then help to automate and integrate these new objectives into their current workflows. With GeorgiaUnify, we are now making this possible and enabling clinicians to do what they do best — deliver the highest quality care to their patients.
What is being done at the state and/or federal level to support/encourage this type of data collaboration?
In recent years, SDOH have gained significant attention as crucial factors influencing health outcomes and healthcare disparities. At the federal level, several initiatives and programs are in place to address SDOH, including Medicaid Expansion, Title V Maternity and Child Health Block Grants, Food and Housing Assistance Programs, and much more. In Georgia, GaHIN is working closely with our state agencies to strategize and build a network that serves providers, patients, and social service organizations throughout the state. As a great example of our pioneering spirit, we are proud to have partnered with the Georgia Department of Community Affairs (DCA) to bring housing data into our repository. We can now match clinical, social, and housing data to produce a longitudinal patient record. We are also working to onboard community-service boards and federally qualified health centers onto the platform.
What are some of the more interesting use cases you have found for GeorgiaUnify?
One of the most interesting use cases involves one of our local community service boards, Claratel Behavioral Health, which is leveraging GeorgiaUnify for several different projects. For example, Claratel has a Co-Responder program that sends behavioral health specialists out with Dekalb County police department responders to help de-escalate non-criminal offenses. With GeorgiaUnity, responders can make the necessary clinical and/or social referrals directly at the point of interaction, expediting access to the services needed.
What do you believe is the future of clinical + social data integration?
The future for whole-person care looks bright. In Georgia, we already have the ability to "close the loop" in care because of how GaHIN is positioned and supported. The new, modern technology platform is now fully in place and being used by many different health and social care organizations to explore new use cases that were previously thought impossible. The technology is only as good as the users and the data; I am proud that we are making leaps and bounds daily.
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