Winter 2024 Newsletter



New results and resources

Kaiser Permanente’s Social Health Priorities for Learning and Action


This new results summary reports on a partner-engaged concept mapping approach that SONNET used to identify the most relevant and important research and operational questions that could advance social health practice at Kaiser Permanente. A team led by SONNET Associate Director Meagan Brown compiled and sorted input from hundreds of Kaiser Permanente operational leaders, clinicians, researchers, and staff to create a specific list of top-rated social health priorities based on impact and urgency.

Read the summary

Project team: Meagan Brown, Cheryl Kelly, Cara Lewis, Andrea Paolino, and Caitlin Dorsey

‘Addressing Social Health in Medicine’: Launch and Evaluation of a Web-based CME Training


How can health systems like Kaiser Permanente spread and scale the knowledge and skills clinicians need to provide social risk-informed care? This SONNET results summary shares insights on the development, dissemination, and evaluation of a web-based CME course that illustrates real-world clinical interactions related to social health. Launched at Kaiser Permanente in 2022, the 'Addressing Social Health in Medicine' training was designed in partnership with clinicians and includes case scenarios based on their experiences. Results from the evaluation point to the need for more robust dissemination to encourage engagement in social health training.

Read the summary

Project team: Meagan Brown, Dea Papajorgji-Taylor, Elizabeth Bojkov, and Andrea Paolino

New tool for researchers and others who want to publish in social health journals


Check out this new SONNET resource as you're working on your next journal submission for a social health study! Created by the SONNET Coordinating Center, this compilation of social health publication opportunities provides detailed information on various journals, article types and descriptions, word limits, tables and figures, and costs for publication. If you have suggestions for other journals or helpful information we should add, please email us at sonnet@kp.org.

View the tool

Events and opportunities

Upcoming SONNET talks at the HCSRN Annual Conference


If you're attending the Health Care Systems Research Network Annual Conference in Milwaukee April 9 to 11, be sure to check out these presentations from our SONNET colleagues:


  • Advances in Food and Nutrition Security in Healthcare: Progress from Kaiser Permanente's Research and Human Centered Design. Panel presentation on April 9 (2 to 3:30 p.m.) by Nancy Weinfield, Claudia Nau, Kelly Dumke, and Alex Erkenbeck.


  • Changes in Health-related Social Risks, Needs, and Self-reported Health over Time: Results from the 2022 KP National Social Health Survey. Presentation on April 9 (11:15 to 11:30 a.m.) by Meagan Brown; co-authors are Cara Lewis, Rob Wellman, Kara Haugen, Carolyn Bain, Arvind Ramaprasan, Bianca DiJulio, and Anand Shah.


  • Clinical Versus Social Needs in Medically Complex Patients. Presentation on April 10 (1:30 to 3 p.m.) by Emma Tucher; co-authors are Allison Steele, Jodi McCloskey, and Richard Grant.
Visit the conference website

AHA health equity conference will feature Kaiser Permanente's work to integrate social needs with clinical care


The American Hospital Association's 2024 Accelerating Health Equity Conference will feature insights from Kaiser Permanente, MetroHealth, and Northwestern Medicine in a joint session titled "So you screen your patients for social needs. What’s next?" The session will focus on how to design social needs programs to address patient preferences and tailor approaches to meet patient, provider, and community needs. The conference takes place May 7 to 9 in Kansas City, Missouri, with this session scheduled for May 9 at 10:30 a.m. SONNET Associate Director Meagan Brown will join Kaiser Permanente Senior Director of Social Health Jenn Frost to present insights from Kaiser Permanente's social needs research and implementation efforts.q

Visit the conference website

From our partners at SIREN: A new logic model to guide social care interventions. Join their webinar on March 11 to learn more!


Emerging evidence suggests that social care programs do not affect health solely by connecting patients with social services and reducing socioeconomic barriers. In a recent paper, the Social Interventions Research & Evaluation Network (SIREN) used this evidence to develop a model that depicts the multiple pathways through which social care interventions appear to operate. Join SIREN co-directors Laura Gottlieb, Danielle Hessler, and Caroline Fichtenberg on March 11 at 9 a.m. PT (noon ET) for a webinar discussion about the new model and its implications for future program investments and evaluations. 

Register for the webinar

What we're reading

The U.S. Playbook to Address Social Determinants of Health


Last fall, the White House and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services released several resources to help support federal agencies, states, and local and tribal governments to better coordinate health care, public health, and social services. Among these is the "U.S. Playbook to Address Social Determinants of Health," which aims to help accelerate innovation across sectors through practical solutions that equitably improve social circumstances and achieve better health outcomes. The playbook focuses on 3 specific actions: Expanding data gathering and sharing, supporting flexible funding to address social needs, and supporting the development of community organizations and other infrastructure to strengthen the link with health care systems.

View the playbook

Stay in touch

We'd love to hear what you're working on! Email our team: sonnet@kp.org.


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Our SONNET Coordinating Center would like to acknowledge that our Seattle offices are on the ancestral lands and traditional territories of the Puget Sound Coast Salish People.

© 2024 Kaiser Permanente Social Needs Network for Evaluation and Translation