Social Determinants of Health (Social Needs Screening) Use Case
The Social Determinants of Health (Social Needs Screening) use case allows organizations to send health related social needs screening data to Michigan Health Information Network Shared Services (MiHIN) and to other care team members and participating organizations to support care coordination and population health.
Standards for SDOH Data Exchange
Standards, in the context of health IT, refer to agreed-on file formats for electronic documents, messages, and other healthcare related data elements. These standard formats allow for the creation of electronic messages that are exchanged between different health IT systems, which make interoperability and health information exchange possible.
The MiHIN SDOH (Social Needs Screening) File Formats is evolving based on:
- Gravity Project Crosswalk (tools/questions/answers/domains)
- CDC race data standards
- CDC ethnicity data standards
About this Use Case
“Social determinants of health are conditions in the environments in which people are born, live, learn, work, play, worship, and age that affect a wide range of health, functioning, and quality-of-life outcomes and risks.” [1]
In an effort to better understand the link between social needs and individual health and well-being, more data is needed across and within organizations caring for people in the community.
The MiHIN Social Needs Screening Use Case (SDoH) is a first step in building a knowledge infrastructure that streamlines the process of sharing needed and permissible information across communities and throughout the State of Michigan-and it continues to evolve as the national and regional landscapes do.
Important updates to HEDIS measures that were put into effect in January 2023 are being reflected in changes to the data specifications to ensure the quality and standardization of the data for use in clinical, policy and payment level analysis.
Considering reviewing The Download – NCQA: To Improve we Must Measure – December 2022 (Use Case specific starts at 1:01) and learn more about our Cross Sector Data Sharing work here.
[1] “Social Determinants of Health,” healthypeople.gov, accessed October, 17, 2018, https://www.healthypeople.gov/2020/topics-objectives/topic/social-determinants-of-health#five