Harnessing Digital Information to Improve Population Health

Health systems do not systematically collect information on social determinants of health (SDH) — the conditions in which people are born, live, grow, and age — despite knowing that they have a big impact on individual and population health. But the shift from reimbursing providers for the volume of services they deliver to the quality of patient outcomes relative to cost requires focusing more on maintaining patients health and not just curing disease. This means that providers must start investing in population health management strategies to better understand the local population and identify unmet needs. The challenge is that the SDH information that physicians collect from patients and enter into their electronic medical records is pretty limited. But alternative means of collecting such information are emerging: via smartphones, credit-card transactions, and social media. Each offers promising ways forward, but includes roadblocks as well, including issues around privacy, patient consent, and physician buy-in. But in taking these barriers into account and addressing them thoughtfully, health care systems will be able to harness digital technologies to identify the needs and interventions required to create healthier communities.