A number of major health technology companies have partnered with the White House in an effort to standardize the sharing of patient data on social determinants of health.
The White House announced a Sync for Social Needs coalition that includes Oracle-Cerner, Geisinger, Epic, Rush University System for Health and many more. As part of the program, the coalition, which also includes the Department of Veterans Affairs, will collectively evaluate and pilot the integration of specific social screening tools in electronic medical record (EMR) systems.
The coalition will also commit to working with participants to scale the standardized practices to lower the clinician burden to screen for social needs.
The partnership comes as the White House has focused on addressing social determinants of health, which are the social and economic conditions that can impact physical health, such as food and housing security, education and more. In addition to Sync for Social Needs, the Biden administration announced a score of other efforts, including improving access to healthy food and nutrition through numerous other partnerships with organizations like AARP and private companies such as Instacart.
The White House appears to be pushing for integration of social determinants of health within EMRs. Healthcare organizations and providers may be more effective treating patients and preventing worse health outcomes with more information and their patients’ social and economic information within their health information.