3M Health Information Systems has introduced a new technology platform that allows health care 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 percent of an individual’s health outcomes is driven by medical care alone.i 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.”
Health care organizations continue to face unprecedented challenges from COVID-19, which has amplified health care disparities. “SDoH analytics are essential to improving outcomes and achieving health equity across communities,” said Elizabeth Guyton, vice president of 3M Health Information Systems. “We look forward to helping our customers use this vital information to improve the health and wellbeing of the people they serve.”
“We are dedicated to helping providers and payers understand and address social risk and are excited to partner with 3M,” said Trenor Williams, MD, CEO of Socially Determined. “By combining our unique approach to quantifying community and individual social risk with the insights 3M CRGs provide, 3M customers will have unprecedented ability to impact the structural disparities and inequities we are both working to address.”
