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We’re considering making some updates to the SIREN Evidence and Resource Library, and we want to hear what you’d like to see change. Click here to quickly share your suggestion(s)! 

Webinars

Systems for Action: The Community-Led Aligning Toolkit – May 6, 2026 | 9am PT/12pm ET

Systems for Action: Aligning Health and Social Systems to Promote Vaccination Access for Populations Experiencing Systemic Barriers – May 20, 2026 | 9am PT/12pm ET

The Intersection: A New Vision For Care: Building Anti-Racist Health Systems – May 26, 2026 | 10am PT/1pm ET

Meetings & Conferences

Health Experiences Research Network: Health Experiences Research 1.0 Hybrid Training – May 18-20, 2026 | Albuquerque, NM & virtual 

AcademyHealth: 2026 Annual Research Meeting – May 30-June 2, 2026 | Seattle, WA 

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 

Weill Cornell Medicine: Addressing Drivers of Health: What Works, What Doesn’t, and What’s Next – Originally broadcast March 25, 2026

The Intersection: Rest & Renewal: An Invitation to Reset and Reconnect – Originally broadcast March 25, 2026

More Health, Less Healthcare: How to Improve SDOH Screening Why Quality is More Important Than Quantity – Originally broadcast April 1, 2026 

In our Research Round-Up we share multiple SIREN-relevant articles published since our 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. 

April Research Highlights

Massachusetts Medicaid Housing Supports Reduced Health Care Costs Among Adults with Behavioral Health Conditions Sabatino MJ, Hager K, Ash A, et al. | Health Affairs        

One of the first evaluations of a statewide Medicaid housing supports program. Receipt of housing supports among adults with behavioral health conditions reduced per person health care costs, ED visits, and readmissions. Additional details in the final summative report for MA’s first waiver (2017-2022), published in January 2026.

Designing Medically Tailored Meal Interventions: The Food as Medicine for Families (FAME-F) Factorial Randomized Clinical Trial Berkowitz SA, Nguyen J, Dagley C, Ali A, et al. | Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes

No statistically significant differences in diet outcomes were seen between providing MTM to entire household vs. just to the eligible individual. No loneliness differences were seen between in person vs. mailed food delivery. 

Approaches to Identifying Social Needs: The SECURE RCT Cullen D, Brown R, McPeak K, et al. | Pediatrics

Caregivers of pediatric patients were more likely to share desires for social needs assistance if offered a resource menu than through social risk screening. The accompanying commentary (To Screen or Not to Screen? Future Considerations for Social Care Intervention Delivery Leary JC, Branley CE, Garg A) highlights that offering assistance without screening may reduce stigma but may also remove opportunities for providers to build trust and to adjust care based on social needs. For more on this topic see this recent SIREN webinar.

Social Risk-Informed Decision Support and Blood Pressure Control in a Primary Care Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial McGrath BM, Gold R, Donovan J, Watkins A, et al. | Annals of Family Medicine

Access to EHR-integrated social clinical decision support tools was associated with increased documentation of social risks and greater improvement in BP control but had no impact on HbA(1c) levels.

Intervention Effectiveness Studies

Design and Early Evaluation of a Social Care Network's Impact on Health Care Costs Galper K, Miguel C, LeJeune K, Rung J, et al. | Health Affairs Scholar

Healthcare Utilization Following Implementation of a Pediatric Social Needs Screening Program Gibson A, Riggs-Harpur K, Jafry M, Mathur A, et al. | Journal of Primary Care and Community Health

Implementation and Costs of a Food Insecurity Resource Navigation Program for Primary Care Patients with Diabetes and Hypertension in South Carolina Gupta D, Thomas D, Self S, Frongillo EA, et al. | Preventive Medicine Reports

Team-Based Pilot Program Incorporates Food Vouchers to Improve Health in Patients with Diabetes Ainooson J, Gregory B, Sherwin EB, et al. | Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior

Patients’ and Providers’ Experiences with Social Care

Beyond Capacity: Qualitative Stakeholder Perspectives on Demand for Health-Related Social Needs Navigation Through Patient Self-Navigation Tools Gago CM, De Leon E, Zhang L | BMC Health Services Research

Caregiver Perceptions of Social Need Documentation Brown R, DeMarco M, Cullen D | JAMA Network Open

It’s Part of Dialysis: Lived Experiences of Transportation Challenges Among Patients and Staff in In-Center Hemodialysis Bonilla-Herrera MA, Saini N, Corina I, et al.| The Journal of Nephrology Social Work

“Stress Off Our Shoulders”: A Qualitative Pilot Study of a Neonatal Medical-Legal Partnership Klawetter S, Mutrie L, Lenne E, et al. | Journal of Law, Medicine and Ethics

Identifying Social Risks

Beyond Metrics to Methods: A Scoping Review of Transformers and Large Language Models for Detection of Social Drivers of Health in Clinical Notes Farrag A, Soliman A, Hatef E, Goodin A, Rouhizadeh M | Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association

Improving Screening Rates for Social Determinants of Health in Pediatric Primary Care Practices Rao VS, Chamberlain C, Bernstein B, et al. | Population Health Management

Current Practices in Social Determinants of Health Screening in Commission on Cancer Hospitals Chan K, Francescatti AB, Cotler JH, et al. | Journal of the American College of Surgeons

Integrating Social Drivers of Health Screening into Ambulatory Cancer Care Jones T, Snow A, Aryeh B, Liu M, Weber K, et al. | Journal of Psychosocial Oncology

Partnering to Address Social Determinants of Health: Screening Older Adults Through Healthcare and Aging Services Collaboration O'Sullivan KS, Weaver RH, Bolkan C, et al. | Journal of Applied Gerontology