It seems like my latest kick is talking about Social Determinants of Health (SDOH) and their impact on our health and the health system (Note: I blame Mandi Bishop for this). Many of you might remember that I recently asked if doctors ever cared about SDOH. The topic also came up in the recent Health Disruptors chat where I asked pointed questions about SDOH from a practicing doctor. Dr. Vanagon’s responses were quite insightful.
During that chat, I started listing off some of the possible social determinants of health. I knew my list was lacking and I figured someone else had created a much better list. As fate would have it, this list popped up on my social news feed:
#SocialDeterminants of #health.
My 6min @YouTube lesson.
From the archives.https://t.co/SMDL5jZSlg#ausvotes pic.twitter.com/r3uKTDdMtK— Dr Alessandro Demaio (@SandroDemaio) June 23, 2016
Does anyone else get a bit overwhelmed when you see a full list like this? However, it also displays huge opportunities since our current health system is working on such a small portion of this chart. We’re going to have to expand what we’re doing if we truly want to lower the cost of healthcare as we know it. Although, it’s also important to note that doctors can only influence so much of what impacts our health.
Which SDOH factors do you think it would be best for our health system to work on first?
