How can social care research better advance racial health equity?
We are excited to share recommendations about what social care researchers, research institutions, and research funders can do to advance racial health equity, based on thoughts from participants at the SIREN 2022 National Research Meeting: Racial Health Equity in Social Care. In addition, we’ve released the meeting’s plenary sessions on the SIREN Podcast so you can (re)listen to them on the go. Subscribe via Spotify, Overcast, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Introducing SIREN’s “Methods Conversations”  
With support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, SIREN is launching a series of Methods Conversations for social care researchers. Each of the quarterly webinars will focus on a methods topic we are eager to learn more about. Intrigued? Come join us! Each event also will be recorded and available on the SIREN website.

We’re kicking off the series with a session April 24th at 9am PT/ 12pm ET on Realist Evaluation. SIREN friends Arwen Bunce and Suzanne Morrissey from OCHIN will share how they have used “Realist Evaluation”, a qualitative-forward approach to evaluation that involves developing, testing, and refining explanatory theories about how and why interventions do or do not work as intended. Sneak Peek 👀: Arwen and Suzanne found realist evaluation particularly useful for understanding and then improving support for social care intervention adoption in community health centers.

And whether or not you tune into this one, please share your ideas for future Methods Conversations topics by emailing us at siren@ucsf.edu. Each event also will be recorded and available on the SIREN website.

In Case You Missed It
The video recording from our March 1st webinar: How Do Community Resource Referral Platforms Work for Social Service Organizations? Lessons Learned in Trenton, New Jersey is now up on SIREN's YouTube channel and our website. Answers to the questions asked during the webinar can be found here.

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NEJM Catalyst Special Double Issue on Social Care
The April issue of NEJM Catalyst Innovations in Care Delivery, edited by SIREN Research Advisory Committee member Seth Berkowitz, features more than a dozen articles on social care. Read the full issue here (many of the articles are also in the Research Round Up below.) NEJM Catalyst also hosted a virtual event on March 9th with some of the article authors that you can watch here.

National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases

RFA-DK-22-038: Pilot Interventions to Integrate Social Care and Medical Care to Improve Health Equity (R01—Clinical Trial Required). Application period opens September 19, 2023. There is also a pre-application webinar happening on May 15, 2023 at 9am PT/12pm ET. Pre-registration to attend the webinar is required. More information can be found here.

National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR)

AcademyHealth 2023 Annual Meeting – Late-breaking abstracts are being accepted until March 27, 2023. More details can be found here.

Health Affairs – Theme issue on housing and health, to be published in February 2024. Submit abstracts by April 17, 2023. See full details here.

The Root Cause Coalition 8th Annual National Summit – Request for proposals is open until April 17, 2023 at 11:59pm PT. More information here.

North American Primary Care Research Group (NAPCRG) Meeting – Call for abstracts is open until 9:59pm PT on May 14, 2023. More information here.

With the NEJM Catalyst special issue, this month’s crop of publications is particularly bountiful. Below are most of the articles published since the last newsletter. For a full list, see the SIREN Evidence and Resource Library.

Peer-Reviewed Articles

Awareness

Stakeholder Perspectives on Social Screening in US Healthcare Settings Aceves B, De Marchis E, Loomba V, Brown EM, Gottlieb LM | Health Services Research

An Increase in the Use of ICD-10 Z-Codes for Social Risks and Social Needs: 2015 to 2019 Bensken WP, Alberti PM, Baker MC, Koroukian SM | Population Health Management

Food Insecurity Screening in Safety-Net Clinics in Los Angeles County: Lessons for Post-Pandemic Planning Caldwell JI, Palimaru A, Cohen DA, Shah D, Kuo T | Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine

Implementation Support for a Social Risk Screening and Referral Process in Community Health Centers Gold R, Kaufmann J, Cottrell EK, et al. | NEJM Catalyst Innovations in Care Delivery

Identifying Nutritional Insecurity Among Families in an Urban Pediatric Practice Lax Y, Cullen D, Silver M, Avner JR. | JAMA Network Open

Implementation Fidelity of Chatbot Screening for Social Needs: Acceptability, Feasibility, Appropriateness Langevin R, Berry A, Zhang J, et al. | Applied Clinical Informatics

Examining How Social Risk Factors Are Integrated into Clinical Settings Using Existing Data: A Scoping Review Ngongo WM, Peterson J, Lipiszko D, et al. | Annals of Family Medicine

A Physician's Sense of Responsibility to Address Disparities: Does it Relate to Reported Behaviors About Screening for and Addressing Social Needs? Peek ME, Wan W, Noriea A | Academic Medicine

Assistance/Interventions

Food interventions

The Effect of Food is Medicine Interventions on Diabetes-related Health Outcomes Among Low-income and Food-insecure Individuals: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis Gao Y, Yang A, Zurbau A, Gucciardi E | Canadian Journal of Diabetes

Participant Perspectives on the Impact of Receiving Medically Tailored Meals on Post-Hospitalization Kelly C, Gleason K, Drace M, et al.  | Public Health Nursing

Impact of Food Delivery and Health Coaching on Outcomes and Costs of Care: A Payer’s Perspective  Lumpkin JR, Taylor LH, Hattori A, Jedele JM | NEJM Catalyst Innovations in Care Delivery

Feed to Heal: Leveraging Technology for Food Insecurity Referrals in Health Care  Smith A, Wish J, Spong T, Burns K, Hamilton RC | NEJM Catalyst Innovations in Care Delivery

Housing interventions

Addressing Health Disparities of Individuals Experiencing Homelessness in the U.S. with Community Institutional Partnerships: An Integrative Review Lee JJ, Jagasia E, Wilson PR | Journal of Advanced Nursing

Multi-need interventions

Pathways to Success in Meeting Health-Related Social Needs  Schweitzer A, Mohta NS | NEJM Catalyst Innovations in Care Delivery

System Approaches to Social Determinants of Health Screening and Intervention Shaheen A, Squire MA, Gay H, Rana SY, Gwynne M, Gupta SK | NEJM Catalyst Innovations in Care Delivery

Patients' Willingness to Accept Social Needs Navigation After In-Person versus Remote Screening Steeves-Reece AL, Davis MM, Hiebert Larson J, et al. | Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine

A Formative Evaluation of Social Care Integration Across a Safety-Net Health System Taira BR, Yadav K, Perez Y, et al. | NEJM Catalyst Innovations in Care Delivery

Integrated Interventions to Bridge Medical and Social Care for People Living with Diabetes Gunter KE, Tanumihardjo JP, O'Neal Y, Peek ME, Chin MH | Journal of General Internal Medicine

Evaluation of an Integrated Intervention to Address Clinical Care and Social Needs Among Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Roth SE, Gronowski B, Jones KG, et al. | Journal of General Internal Medicine

"Everything in One Place": Stakeholder Perceptions of Integrated Medical and Social Care for Diabetes Patients in Western Maryland Saulsberry L, Gunter KE, O'Neal Y, et al. | Journal of General Internal Medicine

Health care leaders’ perspectives on social care

Learning from Massachusetts Hospitals on Programs to Address Social Determinants of Health  Velasquez DE, Figueroa JF | NEJM Catalyst Innovations in Care Delivery

Health Care Professionals Take Individual and Organizational Responsibility for Addressing Social Needs Berkowitz SA | NEJM Catalyst Innovations in Care Delivery

The Difficulty of Addressing Social Needs Through Health Care Alone Bees J | NEJM Catalyst Innovations in Care Delivery

Adjustment

Partner-Developed Electronic Health Record Tools to Facilitate Social Risk-Informed Care Planning Gunn R, Pisciotta M, Gold R, et al. | Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association

Alignment

How Hospitals Improve Health Equity Through Community-Centered Innovation Berry LL, Letchuman S, Khaldun SJ, Hole MK | NEJM Catalyst Innovations in Care Delivery

Improving Health and Addressing Social Determinants of Health Through Hospital Partnerships Hamadi HY, Zhao M, Park S, et al. | Population Health Management

Commentaries & Blogs

Three articles on social drivers of health bonds in Health Affairs:

Two Questions Before Health Care Organizations Plunge into Addressing Social Risk Factors Fichtenberg C, Fraze TK | NEJM Catalyst Innovations in Care Delivery

Developing National Social Care Standards Gottlieb LM, DeSilvey SC, Fichtenberg C, Bernheim S, Peltz A | Health Affairs Forefront

A Medicaid Benefit for Health-Related Social Needs McConnell KJ, Rowland R, Nevola A | JAMA Health Forum

Webinars

Systems for Action: Achieving Health Equity by Eliminating Racism: A Presentation of NCHE Programs & Strategies – April 5, 2023 | 9am PT/ 12pm ET

Center for Health Care Strategies: Sustainable Financing Approaches for Medicaid Managed Care Organizations to Address Health-Related Social Needs – April 6, 2023 | 1pm  PT/ 4pm ET

Systems for Action: Social Bonds as a Pooled Financing Mechanism to Address Social Drivers of Health Equity – April 19, 2023 | 9am PT/ 12pm ET

Meetings & Conferences

American Hospital Association: Accelerating Health Equity Conference – May 16-18, 2023 | Minneapolis, MN   

AcademyHealth 2023 Annual Research Meeting – June 24-27, 2023 | Seattle, WA 

North American Primary Care Research Group (NAPCRG) Meeting – October 30- November 3, 2023 | San Francisco, CA

The Root Cause Coalition 8th Annual National Summit – December 3-5, 2023 | Kansas City, MO