Allscripts Hosts Health IT Challenge to Elevate SDOH Data Exchange

Allscripts recently hosted a challenge to elevate health IT solutions for interoperable social determinants of health (SDOH) data exchange.

Access to SDOH information helps providers address non-clinical factors that may be impacting patient health and contributing to health disparities.

Allscripts recruited developer organizations to answer this question at the Advancing Health Equity Using Social Determinants of Health Developer Challenge: “How can we use technology and innovative solutions to share relevant patient SDOH information with care providers to advance equity of healthcare access?”

The health IT vendor selected eight developer organizations for the final round of judging. Each organization had an opportunity to present its health IT solution and respond to questions related to the tool’s design, benefits, and ability to integrate with existing Allscripts technology. 

Allscripts chose developer organization Patient Orator as the challenge winner.

The health IT vendor’s solution aims to streamline patient-provider communication to facilitate meaningful conversations for patient-centered care delivery.

Patients can identify their health concerns, care preferences, and social determinants of health needs through the developer’s HIPAA-compliant mobile application. The organization’s solution also helps connect at-risk individuals to social care organizations and healthcare providers to improve health outcomes.

“We’re looking forward to working with the Patient Orator team and helping to enable this solution for Allscripts clients,” Tina Joros, Allscripts vice president and general manager of the open business unit and practice management solutions, said in a press release.

“I’m inspired to think about the enormous potential for good that we can do when we bring the information we gained from this challenge to the point of care,” Joros continued.

Allscripts chose Experian Health, Health Endeavors, MedAware, Myelin Solutions, Phreesia, Welfie, and PatientLink as the seven other finalists.

Experian Health’s solution uses consumer data assets to deliver actionable SDOH information to care teams.

Health Endeavors presented a care coordination tool that aims to provide physicians with comprehensive health history by including patient-generated health data (PGHD) from an online SDOH questionnaire.

MedAware presented a tool that uses a patient-specific risk estimate for future opioid dependency or overdose. The solution can be used from a patient’s first opioid prescription and throughout the duration of treatment.

Myelin Solutions showcased a care collaboration platform that aims to aggregate data from multiple sources to help care teams easily identify and close care gaps.

Phreesia’s tool helps providers screen patients for SDOH risk factors electronically across a variety of domains through customized screening questions or standardized screening tools.

Welfie’s health equity platform allows families to build a collective health profile by connecting their data and completing health assessments.

Lastly, PatientLink’s tool gives clinics the ability to capture SDOH data from patients using a variety of platforms.

“Through this initiative, we are giving clinicians an opportunity to have more meaningful interactions with patients that enable them to address the important aspects of the patient’s daily life that could make a difference in their overall health,” Joros noted.

The event also included a keynote fireside chat with Micky Tripathi, PhD, MPP, the National Coordinator for Health IT, who shared an update on efforts by ONC and the Biden Administration more broadly to address the challenges associated with health inequities.

Last week, ONC announced the University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin) as one of the 2021 Leading Edge Acceleration Projects (LEAP) in Health IT awardees for their interoperability project that aims to enhance SDOH data exchange.

UT Austin will create an application programming interface (API)-enabled social and health information platform using the Health Level 7 International (HL7) Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) standard to integrate a closed loop social services referral system.

The referral system will be available to EHR systems in all federally qualified health centers to help manage the SDOH needs of patients in pursuit of health equity.