MedPage Today July 23, 2018
Population-level research supports the concept, but benefit for individual patients less clear
Fictional TV doctor Gregory House routinely ordered his team to break into patients’ homes to find clues to their mystery ailments, perhaps revealing behaviors their patients failed to share.
“Everybody lies,” House often said.
In what some suggest is another ethically questionable version of medical sleuthing, companies are now scanning public records that provide clues to individuals’ “social determinants of health,” or SDOH — such as arrest records, bankruptcy filings, voter registration, address changes, and marriages and divorces — that, in combination with traditional prognostic tools, may predict an individual’s likelihood of future healthcare needs and costs.
Patients’ medical history and what they tell their physicians...
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