NYC HIE Partners with Health IT Vendor for SDOH Interoperability

Healthix, a health information exchange (HIE) serving New York City and Long Island, has partnered with health IT vendor Unite Us to drive social determinants of health (SDOH) interoperability.

The collaboration will establish infrastructure for communication between healthcare systems and social care networks working to address needs for services such as food, benefits, housing, and transportation assistance.

Integrating health and social care is set to improve health equity across New York's underserved populations. Studies show that medical care only accounts for about 20 percent of health disparities in a population, while 80 percent can be linked to SDOH.

"We welcome the opportunity to partner with Unite Us to help better establish a holistic level of care when it comes to providing our customers with key information both inside hospital walls and outside into the community," Todd Rogow, President and CEO at Healthix, said in a press release.

"The Unite Us software will create a seamless and convenient way for our customers to access a network of health and social care providers who will connect them to available, community-based resources that provide other levels of care, like housing, employment, and behavioral health assistance," Rogow continued.

Dan Brillman, CEO and co-founder of Unite Us, said the partnership with Healthix is a "natural fit."

"We are aligned on a shared mission of improving the lives of individuals across NYC and Long Island by supporting community-led systems of care, building trust in these communities in the same way that trust is facilitated between patient and provider, and adequately and accurately capturing the whole picture of a person's health," Brillman said.

Unite Us and Healthix have worked together in large social care networks with Public Health Solutions, which provides resources to underserved populations in NYC.

"It is essential to establish a single technology ecosystem and roadmap for the region that is compatible with the requirements for healthcare-community partnerships," said Lisa David, president and CEO at Public Health Solutions. "The technologies that Healthix and Unite Us offer support interoperability and critical case management, closed-loop referrals, and population health capabilities."