Learn more about our new study–conducted in collaboration with Harvard Medical School investigators at Massachusetts General Hospital–which found that enrollment in a resource needs intervention helped patients improve blood pressure and cholesterol levels.
“It can be daunting for a health system to feel all of a sudden responsible for poverty,” but there’s also a “huge appetite” for this kind of work, says Rebecca Onie, Health Leads founder.
Patients who were screened for social needs and then helped getting food, medication and other necessities saw subsequent improvements in blood pressure and cholesterol levels, shows a new study by Mass General Hospital and Health Leads.
Changes in health care financing are pushing some health systems to address social factors that directly impact patients’ health. A handful of pioneering organizations have begun to adopt this “community cure” for health and move beyond pills and procedures.
“There are parts of these patients’ lives that are affecting their health much more than anything that happens in the clinic,” says Dr. Meghan Tschudy, a clinician at Johns Hopkins Children’s Center, a Health Leads partner.
Why doesn't identifying an unmet essential need as a cause of illness count as making a diagnosis? Health Leads CMO Damon Francis comments on the role of doctors in addressing social determinants of health.
