Accounting for Social Determinants of Health in Clinical Care

Abstract

Little is known regarding effective interventions taken by Primary Care Providers (PCP) to address Social Determinants of Health (SDOH) and the “nonmedical” health related social needs of their patients. Healthcare Payors almost exclusively determine how SDOH are addressed in health care. Perspectives and input from patients most impacted by SDOH have been largely absent from current efforts to address SDOH in medicine. Because structural racism is a principal driver of SDOH, it’s critical that healthcare policy research attempt to control for its overreaching influence. Consequently, this preliminary community-based research offers a people-centered vs systems centered inquiry into how social determinants of health could best be addressed in patient visits with their PCP.