3M Health Information Systems introduced a new technology platform that allows healthcare providers and payers to prioritize care and allocate resources for high-risk individuals and patient populations.
3M Social Determinants of Health Analytics (3M SDoH) combines clinical, social and population health data to create a complete picture of patient health. The new platform builds on the power of 3M Clinical Risk Groups (3M CRGs), a population classification system, and includes social risk intelligence from Socially Determined, a social risk analytics company, to promote program design and management in collaboration with community-based organizations.
According to researchers, only 20% of an individual's health outcomes is driven by medical care alone. The other contributing factors are "social determinants of health" (SDoH) and include housing instability, unemployment, food insecurity, and lack of transportation, all of which can lead to poor health outcomes and higher costs.
3M SDoH Analytics uses 3M CRGs to describe the health status, severity and total disease burden in an identified population. 3M CRGs help identify medically complex individuals and can be used to understand health care utilization and cost. When integrated with Socially Determined's social risk metrics, 3M SDoH Analytics quantifies social risk factors and analyzes the impact of these factors on population health.
After piloting 3M SDoH Analytics, Florida-based health plan Community Care Plan is developing proactive initiatives that address avoidable emergency department visits.
"Identifying social risk improves our ability to address our members' clinical risk and their care management needs," said Miguel Venereo, MD, senior vice president and chief medical officer for Community Care Plan." Through our pilot initiative, we learned the vital role that health literacy plays with our members, especially those with chronic conditions. We are now establishing programs to address health literacy, not only for our members, but in the community at large."
Healthcare organizations continue to face unprecedented challenges from COVID-19, which has amplified healthcare disparities.
