Keckley Report April 15, 2019
The most recent addition to the lexicon of health services research is ‘social determinants of health’. Arguably, it joins value-based purchasing and evidence-based medicine as the most transformative themes in the modern era of U.S. healthcare. But it poses a unique challenge.
BACKGROUND
The social determinants of health (SDOH) are the economic and social conditions that influence individual and group differences in health status. (World Health Organization). Unlike signs, symptoms, and co-morbidities that clinicians consider in diagnosing and treating individual patients by abstracting data from their medical records, SDOH involves assessing the circumstances in which an individual lives and works. Per the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention, social determinants include housing, poverty, food security, working conditions, public safety...