Healthcare IT News September 1, 2019
Massachusetts General Hospital estimates that as much as 80 percent of a patient’s health status stems from social and economic factors. Other calculations, such as those spotlighted in a recent Health Affairs report, put the number as high as 90 percent.
This isn’t exactly a new concept. The idea that where we live and work is an essential component of our overall health has been around for a long time,
“Geography has been recognized as important to our health outcomes since 4000 B.C.,” said Dr. Este Geraghty, chief medical officer of Esri. In Hippocrates’ book On Airs, Waters and Places, after all, the father of medicine explored the idea that “where people come from determines how likely they are to...