BRB…Soaking up the last bits of summer

SIREN will take an August newsletter break next month, but we’ll be back in your inbox in September. Miss us already? Don’t worry—we dropped two new podcast episodes from our 2026 webinar series so you can still get your SIREN fix. Listen to the episodes on your favorite podcast channel including Apple and Spotify.

Webinars

Systems for Action: Research to Understand Systemic Racism as a Barrier and Engagement with Child Mental Health Services – July 29, 2026 | 9am PT/12pm ET

Circles USA: Understanding Benefits Cliffs: Evidence, Insights, and Open Questions – August 6, 2026 | 12pm PT/3pm ET

Systems for Action: Using Global Budgets and Multi-Sector Teams to Align Systems in Vermont – August 12, 2026 | 9am PT/12pm ET

*SIREN RESEARCH ALERT!* Systems for Action: Can California's CalAIM Medicaid Transformation Initiative Achieve Systems Integration? Identifying Key Facilitators of Cross-Sectoral Coordination for Individuals with Complex Needs or at High Risk – August 26, 2026 | 9am PT/12pm ET

Meetings & Conferences

Camden Coalition: Putting Care at the Center 2026 – October 14-16, 2026 | Oakland, CA | Early bird registration ends July 31, 2026.

NAPCRG: 54th Annual Meeting – November 24-26, 2025 | Toronto, Canada 

Below, we highlight multiple SIREN-relevant articles published since the last newsletter. For a comprehensive list of articles, 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.

July Research Highlights

To Evaluate Interventions that Address Drivers of Health, Look Beyond ROI Berkowitz S | Health Affairs Forefront

The author suggests that ROI analysis is unsuitable for evaluating drivers of health interventions because it prioritizes financial returns over health outcomes. Cost-effectiveness and cost-benefit analyses better serve decision-making about these interventions because they consider a fuller range of health-related impacts.

Payer-Led Social Needs Interventions Can Reduce Cost of Care for Medicaid Beneficiaries with High Clinical Risk Elmor R, Ma S, Parente A, et al. | NEJM Catalyst Innovations in Care Delivery

The Community Connected Care program achieved significant cost reductions for high-risk Medicaid beneficiaries, with the largest savings ($181 PMPM) among those with both high clinical and social needs.

A Social Care Intervention in Pediatric Practices: A Stepped Wedge Cluster Trial Garg A, Brochier A, Torres A, BarahonaPaz K, Drainoni ML, Shone LP, et al. | Pediatrics

The WE CARE SDOH screening and referral intervention increased provider discussions of social needs and referrals to families across diverse pediatric practices. However, increased referrals did not translate to higher enrollment in community-based resources, highlighting barriers between identification and access. See the accompanying commentary here.

Direct Digital Referrals from Prenatal Care and WIC Enrollment Among Pregnant Individuals: A Randomized Clinical Trial Bailey-Davis L, Mackeen AD, Herb Neff KM, et al. | JAMA Network Open

Social Needs Screening and Supplemental Benefits in Medicare Advantage Billig JI, Dang MD, Cardin JR, Joo JH, Liao JM | The American Journal of Managed Care

Iterative Multidisciplinary Development and Evaluation of a Patient-Facing SDoH Chatbot Using Synthetic Data Simulation Maw AM, Lupi A, Johnson-Koenke R, et al. | JMIR Formative Research

An Examination of the Availability and Characteristics of Social Needs Data in the Electronic Health Records: A Path to Social Data Harmonization and Standardization at Johns Hopkins Medicine Hatef E, Kitchen C, Richards T, Martin B, Lopes NLG, Lehmann HP | JAMIA Open

The Effects of Financial Structures to Increase Social Drivers of Health Investments in Medicaid: A Simulation Approach Fang FH, Karaca-Mandic P, Thakor RT | American Journal of Public Health

Addressing Veterans' Social Determinants of Health in the Context of Suicide Prevention: Staff-Identified Implementation Barriers and Strategies True G, Cusack M, Cullen SW, et al. | Journal of General Internal Medicine

Pharmacist-Led Social Needs and Medication History Intervention in the Emergency Department: A Feasibility Pilot Study Tarun AI, Hsu H, Clark CM, Jacobs DM | Journal of the American Pharmacists Association

Preventing Child Abuse Through a Brief Parenting Intervention: 2.5 Year Outcomes from the Safer Kids Randomized Controlled Trial van Leuven L, Enebrink P, Lalouni M, Forster M | Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry

“This Program Has Given Me the Proper Nutrition That I Deserve”: Participant Perspective on a Medically Tailored Meal Intervention Knoepp P, Ali S, LaPoint M, et al. | Journal of Primary Care and Community Health

Impacts of Colorado's Regional Health Connector Workforce on Health-Related Social Needs and Health Equity Hall TL, Wiggins K, Fernald DH, Grant G, Carroll JK, Dickinson WP | Progress in Community Health Partnerships: Research, Education, and Action

A Simple Health-Related Social Needs Referral Workflow in a Pediatric Emergency Department Ameden LM, Liao J, Jaiprasert S, et al. | Academic Pediatric

Impact of an Innovative Community-Academic Partnership Connecting Families Facing Food Insecurity with a Food Pantry Acevedo-Sánchez J, Zajac L, Khurana S, et al. | Academic Pediatrics

Screening for and Addressing Social Determinants of Health at Transitions of Care Winter S, Mauer K, Jin C, Walters A, Pandey E | Population Health Management

Development of User-Centered Design for Screening, Referral, and Enrollment of Medicaid Adults with Hypertension in a Health Care by Food™ Pilot Study Steeves EA, Serrano CM, Mayfield C, Dimond E, Lauckner C, Bush J, et al. | Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved

Outcomes From a Health-Related Social Needs Screening Initiative in Pediatric Orthopaedic Patients: A Prospective Study Shenoy DA, Schrader E, Radulovacki K, LoPolito AG, Gonzalez N, Catanzano AA | Journal of Pediatric Orthopaedics

Barriers to Patient Engagement with Community-Based Resources Following Social Determinants of Health (SDOH) Screening: A Mixed-Methods Study Across Hospitals in the Chicago Metropolitan Area Jaamour D, Asthana S, Zuniga Y, et al. | BMJ Public Health

Issue Briefs and Reports

From Progress to Peril: Food Insecurity Screening, Social Care Integration, and a Path Forward Sheward R, Vergara N, Plata-Nino G | Hunger Vital Sign™ National Community of Practice

Food as Medicine 3.0: A Cumulative Report on Impacts and Implementation Calloway E, Short E, Zigmont VA |Feeding America National Office

Addressing Hunger through Healthcare: An Evaluation of Project Bread’s Food Is Medicine Intervention | Project Bread

Commentaries and Blogs

Better Together? Learning to Align Medical, Social, and Public Health Systems to Promote Health Equity Mays GP, Cuervo I, Plough AL | American Journal of Public Health