In October, the USDA will release the Economic Research Service (ERS) Household Food Security report, a national measure of hunger in America. These data are critical for understanding both the breadth and depth of food security and the impacts of food security interventions. Much to our dismay, however, the USDA has announced that it will no longer collect this data nor release its annual report. You can learn more about this decision and encourage Congress to advocate for data availability using resources from the Food Research and Action Center (FRAC). On their website, FRAC also highlights other opportunities for food policy advocacy. 

October 21st: Engaging Communities in Social Care Research: Learnings from SIREN’s Social Care Engagement Grantees

Over the last two years, with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, SIREN has been supporting four research-community partnerships. These Engagement Grantees carried out innovative projects to strengthen community engagement and amplify the voices of those with lived experiences as part of social care research. Join us on October 21st from 10-11:30am PT/ 1-2:30pm ET as we explore the transformative impact of the SIREN Engagement Grantees' projects. You’ll discover how these efforts are driving forward the future of engaged social care research across diverse populations and settings in the United States, and then dive right into breakout discussions to gain insight into how you can take the next step on engaging lived experience and community experts in your own research.

Recording from "Engaging Communities and Patient Voices in Social Care Research: Insights from SIREN and HERN" Now Available 

On Wednesday, September 10, 2025 SIREN hosted a special methods webinar with our colleagues from the Health Experiences Research Network (HERN), a non-profit research group that seeks to bring patient voices to American health care by leveraging the Database of Individual Patients' Experiences (DIPEx) methodology to lift up and disseminate patient stories. Colleagues from HERN shared more about this powerful methodology for centering patient experiences and the impact this can have in our work moving forward. 

Evidence for Action’s Rapid Response: Reinvesting in Racial and Indigenous Health Equity Research
You may be eligible to apply if your racial and/or Indigenous health research was interrupted due to federal funding shifts. The deadline to apply is October 1, 2025 by 12pm PT/ 3pm ET. Learn more and apply here.

Improving the Reporting on Health Equity in Observational Research (STROBE-Equity)
The STROBE-Equity extension, an enhancement of the existing STROBE guidelines for reporting results from observational studies, is a consensus- and evidence-based checklist of 10 equity-specific items for transparent reporting of health equity data. It aims to improve the reporting of health equity considerations in observational studies in order to help researchers and practitioners better identify and apply evidence relevant to populations experiencing inequities. Using an equity-focused reporting checklist like this one during the write-up phase of your research is just one way to advance anti-racism in your social care research. Check out SIREN’s Anti-Racism Recommendations for Social Care Research to delve more deeply into how you can bolster your study’s rigor in equity at every stage.

Webinars

Manatt Health: Navigating the New Frontier: AI Policy Trends Impacting Health Tech Innovation – September 25, 2025 

SIREN: Engaging Communities in Social Care Research: Learnings from SIREN’s Social Care Engagement Grantees – October 21, 2025 

Health Outreach Partners: Access to Transportation: Strategies and Solutions for Improving Care - Community Of Practice – November 4, 11, 18, & 25, 2025

Meetings & Conferences

Civitas Annual Conference – September 28-30, 2025 | Anaheim, CA

Camden Coalition: Putting Care At the Center Annual Conference – October 15-17, 2025 | Portland, OR

2025 PCORI Annual Meeting – October 21-22, 2025 | Washington, D.C.
Registration is now open. More details here.

National Association of Medicaid Directors (NAMD) Fall 2025 Conference – November 19-21, 2025 | National Harbor, MD | Registration is open.

NAPCRG (North American Primary Care Research Group) 53rd Annual Meeting  – November 21-25, 2025 | Atlanta GA | Registration is open.

Partnership to Align Social Care: Opportunities to Inform Medicare Payment Policies to Address Upstream Drivers of Health – Originally broadcast August 6, 2025 

Center for Health Care Strategies: Sustained Support: Continued Partnership to Ensure Assisted Living Residents’ Well-Being – Originally broadcast August 21, 2025

Systems for Action: Equity in Action: Navigating New Landscapes in Health Equity Research – Originally broadcast August 27, 2025 

Systems for Action: Systems in Focus Panel | Food as Medicine – Originally broadcast September 10, 2025 

Below we share multiple SIREN-relevant articles published since the last newsletter. For a full list, see the SIREN Evidence and Resource Library. As always, if you are aware of resources that you think should be added to the library, please send them our way.

Peer-Reviewed Articles

Awareness 

Perspectives on Health-Related Social Needs Screening in Primary Care Among Black and Latine Patients Long KA, Paredes Molina AA, Blakey AO, et al. | JAMA Network Open

Examining Housing Insecurity and Transportation Barriers in Pediatric Hospital Readmissions: Insights From Structured and Unstructured Data Mehta S, Brown W 3rd, Sarkar U, Tran N, Hswen Y, Pantell MS | Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association

Performance of 4 Methods to Assess Health-Related Social Needs Vest JR, Wu W, Gregory ME, et al. | JAMA Network Open

SDoH-GPT: Using Large Language Models To Extract Social Determinants Of Health Consoli B, Wang H, Wu X, et al. | Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association

Identification of Child-Maltreatment-Related Emergency Department Visits From Electronic Health Records Holland ML, Hunter AA, Livingston N, Bechtel K | Academic Pediatrics

Developing an Approach to Health-Related Social Needs Screening Across Settings in a Pediatric Health System Shah SN, Conroy K, Donahue S, et al. | Pediatrics

Predictive Validity of Violence Screening Tools in Emergency and Psychiatric Services: A Systematic Review Kamarova S, Davidson SRE, Williams CM, Leite M, Kamper SJ | Trauma Violence Abuse

Implementation of Diaper Insecurity Screening Reinoso D, Kampman H, Grout RW, Peña A, Clark DO, Callahan CM | Pediatrics

Comfort with Sharing Food Insecurity Risk for Clinical Care Among Individuals With and Without a Cancer History: Findings From a National Survey Benyahia SA, Torikashvili J, Paturu T, et al. | AJPM Focus

Elder Abuse: A Scoping Review of the Hospital Social Work Role Blance-Palmer R, Klaic M, Rushford H, Celeste T, Joubert L | Journal of Elder Abuse & Neglect

Assistance

Addressing Housing Insecurity as a Social Determinant of Health: A Systematic Review of Interventions in Healthcare Settings Yan H, Gallant AJ, Delahunty-Pike A, et al. | Social Science & Medicine

Evaluation of the Low-Demand Model for Serving Unsheltered Homeless Veterans in Transitional Housing Tsai J, Kim Y, Szymkowiak D, Haley G, Kinney R | Psychiatric Services

Persons Experiencing Housing Instability Perspectives on Medicaid Managed Care Organizations and Homeless Shelters Clear ER, Scott AM, Kwok K, Ribott MA, Waters TM, Hogg-Graham R | Health Equity

Factors Associated with Patients Wanting Assistance with their Social Risks Tucher EL, Knox MJ, Grant RW, Brown MC | American Journal of Preventive Medicine

Development and Feasibility of a Novel mHealth Resource for Food Insecurity: Mixed Methods Cohort Study Fritz CQ, Xu M, Stassun J, et al. | Journal of Medical Internet Research

Transportation Barriers for Iowa Medicaid-Enrolled Adults With and Without Non-Emergency Medical Transportation Services Larson K, McInroy B, Damiano P | Health Affairs Scholar

Diaper Need — An Underrecognized Social Driver of Health Berry W, Bonville J, Blatt SD | New England Journal of Medicine

Leveraging the Transitional Care Model Intervention to Identify and Mitigate Adverse Social Determinants of Health Osokpo OH, Hirschman KB, Shaid EC, McCauley K, Naylor MD | Journal of the American Medical Directors Association

Alignment

Multisector Collaborations at Children's Hospitals to Address Social Drivers of Health Shaikh U, Gosdin M, Helmke E | International Journal for Quality in Health Care

Commentaries and Blogs

What Would Be Required of Structural Determinants of Health Screening and Follow-Up to Improve Children's Health Equity? Garrity B, Cullen D, Hong H | AMA Journal of Ethics

Artificial Intelligence and Social Determinants of Health Morelli V | Primary Care: Clinics in Office Practice