"Top Ten Tech Trends 2018: A Social Determinants Of Health Technology Market Is Slowly Emerging "- Heather Landi
"Social determinants of health” may be the latest popular buzz term in healthcare, yet there are leading hospitals, medical groups, and health systems, as well as accountable care organizations and health insurers, moving forward with efforts to identify the upstream factors that influence patients’ health. “There are a million examples every day about the importance of social determinants of health,” said Robert Fields, MD, senior vice president and chief medical officer for population health at the Mount Sinai Health System. “If you’re seeing a patient with diabetes, you can write a thousand prescriptions for insulin, but if they don’t have stable housing or electricity in their house, or if they have transportation issues, it’s unlikely they will be able to fill the insulin prescription, store it appropriately, or administer it appropriately.” At Mount Sinai, Dr. Fields is involved in efforts to address social determinants for the 400,000 covered lives in the health system’s ACO, Mount Sinai Health Partners. According to Dr. Fields, the technology solutions that are most beneficial for social determinants of health work include predictive analytics, network registries of community-based organizations, and referral platforms as part of care management solutions.
- Robert Fields, MD, Assistant Professor, Family Medicine & Community Health, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Senior Vice President, Chief Medical Officer, Population Health, Mount Sinai Health System