Trying to align with this week’s spooky vibe, we’re sharing some social care opportunities that could raise the hair on the SIREN audience's collective neck. 🎃 First, remember to register for what is likely to be an unforgettable December SIREN webinar on social care and AI. Second, remember to submit your comments on the federal administration’s proposal to change to the decennial Census, whether or not you find the changes spine chilling! Finally, add to your frighteningly lengthy reading list by checking out the latest SIREN research roundup, which features multiple new studies on food and nutrition, social risk screening, social care and AI, and other topics. Wishing all our SIREN friends a happy and safe Halloween week. 👻

Registration is open for upcoming SIREN webinar

Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly being harnessed to identify and support interventions related to patients’ health-related social needs. What do we know about the value of these activities? Join us on Thursday, December 3, 2026, at 9 a.m. PT / 12 p.m. ET for a conversation with three leading researchers using AI to support social care. Luke Zier (PROSPECT Lab, Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital), Elham Hatef (Johns Hopkins University), and Samuel Savitz (Mayo Clinic) will share their research on evaluating the use of AI to synthesize social risk information documented in EHRs, identify patients with social needs, and support referrals and connections to social services. Moderated by Tiffany Veinot (University of Michigan), the discussion will explore promising approaches, ongoing challenges, and gaps in research on the use of AI in social care. 

This SIREN webinar is sponsored by the Humana Center for Human Flourishing through Health Advancement. 

The U.S. Census Bureau is seeking public comments on proposed changes to the decennial census, including new inclusion criteria for population counts. The proposed changes would eliminate race and ethnicity questions and change who is included in population counts. The changes could affect data quality and representation, the measurement of health disparities, and the ability to examine trends over time. KFF’s issue brief provides more context on the proposed changes and their potential consequences. Comments on the Census Bureau’s proposed changes are due 11/2/2026!

Webinar

The SIREN team is eager to listen to the final webinar from Systems for Action about lessons learned over the last decade: The Alignment Journey: Final Results and Lasting Lessons of the Systems for Action Research Program (December 9, 2026 | 9am PT/12pm ET). For those of you not already familiar with Systems for Action (S4A), it is a national research program funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and based at the Colorado School of Public Health. Grounded in a commitment to advancing health equity, since its inception S4A has focused on identifying and dismantling structural racism by examining how health, social, and public health systems can work together more effectively. As the S4A program sunsets on December 31, this webinar offers a final look at the program’s impact and contributions. Across nine Calls for Proposals, over 1000 S4A-funded projects have explored innovative systems alignment mechanisms – processes designed to coordinate and integrate medical, social, and public health systems to improve population health and advance equity.

Meetings & Conferences

Upstream Lab: Moving Upstream: Advancing the Science of Structural Determinants of Health – November 20, 2026 | Toronto, Canada

NAPCRG: 54th Annual Meeting – November 20-24, 2026 | Toronto, Canada

The National Collaborative for Education to Address the Social Determinants of Health (NCEAS):  2027 Annual Conference: Beyond Screening: Preparing the Workforce for Action – February 22-23, 2027 | Virtual

Systems for Action: Aligning Systems, Advancing Health Equity – Originally broadcast September 29, 2026

Systems for Action: Systems Alignment to Optimize Health Services for Youth Experiencing Homelessness – Originally broadcast September 30, 2026

Systems for Action: An Aligned Delivery and Financing Model to Address Food Insecurity and Social Needs of Low-Income Pregnant Women – Originally broadcast October 7, 2026

Texas NMDOH Consortium: E2Practice: Turning Evidence into Practice – Originally broadcast October 27, 2026 

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.

October Research Highlights

Produce Prescription Dose Response: A Randomized Community Trial Kane RM, Perez-Velazco X, Levi R, et al. | Journal of General Internal Medicine

This randomized trial of 242 adults tested monthly produce-prescription incentives of $40, $80, or $110 for 6 months, redeemable only for fruits and vegetables. Higher doses produced a clear dose-response pattern, with the $110 arm significantly reducing food insecurity compared with $40.

Supporting Asthma Guideline-Based Management by Integrating Patient Navigators Apter AJ, Morales KH, Klusaritz H, et al. | The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology

In this randomized trial of 350 mostly Black adults with asthma in low-income areas, Navigator Home Visits combined with clinical interventions (Navigator-guided preparation for, attendance at, and review of recommendations for patients’ asthma appointments) improved asthma control more than Clinician Feedback from patient/navigator alone. Home Visit Navigators helped to identify social risks such as pests, water leaks, and smoking exposures.

Medicaid Waiver-Based Housing Supports in a Safety-Net Setting: Utilization and Spending Outcomes McCann NC, Hsu HE, Ettinger de Cuba S, et al. | Health Affairs Scholar

Higher and Lower Intensity Outreach to Increase Enrollment in a Medicaid Food Is Medicine Program: A Randomized Controlled Trial Matathia S, Alani S, Cheng D, et al. | Journal of General Internal Medicine

Implementation of a Six-Month Produce Prescription Program for a Rural Medicaid Population Increased Vegetable Consumption and Reduced Food Insecurity in Washington State Castilla A, Silva G, Belay T, Gauck D, Stendell-Hollis N | Preventive Medicine Reports

“I Don’t Have to Choose Between Everything”: Self-Reported Fruit and Vegetable Affordability, Purchasing Shifts, and Healthcare Utilization Among Produce Prescription Program Participants in North Carolina Reimold AE, Ostrowski J, Feng ASN, et al. | Preventive Medicine Reports

An Electronic Health Record-Based Intervention to Facilitate Primary Care Referrals to the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children: Retrospective Cohort Study Montez K, Kay MC, Taxter AJ, Lewis KH | JMIR Pediatrics and Parenting

A Randomized Controlled Study Comparing Three Food Prescription Programs for Older Adults: Program Design, Implementation, and Utilization Leone LA, Lally Mathiebe A, Stoll J, Paluch RA, Tirabassi JN | Frontiers in Public Health                                                               

Association of Post-Discharge Meal Delivery with Hospital Readmissions Among Food-Insecure Older Adults McPeek Hinz E, Hoffman AF, Pignone M, et al. | Journal of Hospital Medicine

Food Insecurity Screening and Immediate Access to Prepackaged Groceries in the Pediatric Emergency Department: A Pilot Study Fujii H, Hunter B, Bapty S, et al. | Pediatric Emergency Care

Nutrition Security Screening in Clinical Care: A Feasibility and Implementation Evaluation in Family Medicine and Subspecialty Clinics Ridberg R, Owens C, Damjanovic M, et al. | The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition  

Hemoglobin A1c and Weight Changes Associated with Grocery Delivery and Low-Carbohydrate Education in Adults with Type 2 Diabetes and Food Insecurity: Observational Quality Improvement Cohort Study Waselewski M, Waselewski E, Oshman L, Hatch K, Chang T | JMIR Formative Research

An AI-Based Whole-Person Care Summarization Tool for Care Management Providers Mulligan J, Zhu K, Batlivala N, Kumar S, Juusola JL, Favini N | NEJM Catalyst Innovations in Care Delivery

Enhancing Medicaid Social Risk Identification: Comparing Linear and Non-Linear Machine Learning Models with Expert Heuristics Khan S, Kumar PH, Algrain H, de Leon L, Parker B, Mays V | IEEE International Conference on Digital Health

“It Would Be a Burden Off My Back”: Veterans’ Perceptions of Social Risk and Needs Screening Acceptability Nevedal AL, Koselka E, Rao M, et al. | Journal of General Internal Medicine

“The Resources Are So Far, and You Need Them Right Here”: Perspectives on Emergency Care for Youth Who Experience Violence Kemal S, Hoffmann JA, Loo S, Madden D, Alpern ER, Samuels-Kalow M | Academic Pediatrics

Integrating Community Linkages into Care Management Workflows to Address Contextual Drivers of Health: Lessons from a Pilot Intervention Gunn R, Pisciotta M, Owens-Jasey C, et al. | Population Health Management

A Community-Based Participatory Approach to Develop a Social Risk Screening Protocol, Tailored to the Needs of Pregnant and Postpartum People in Metro Atlanta Adams K, Gamble Z, Boulet SL, et al. | Health Equity

Barriers to Solutions: A Framework Guided Review of Social Determinants of Breast Cancer Screening and Interventions Designed to Address Them Rademacher N, Wall CS, Huynh VD | Current Breast Cancer Reports

Changes in Healthcare Use and Cost Associated with Referrals to Social Prescribing Link Workers in England: A Matched Case-Control Cohort Study Wilding A, Munford L, Sutton M, et al. | eClinicalMedicine

Assessing the Contextual Factors Around Implementing Social Needs Screening and Intervention Programs in Primary Care in the United States: A Systematic Review Chang E, Guzman I, Glowacki N, Khatib R | Preventive Medicine

Outpatient Interventions Addressing the Social Determinants of Health for Children and Their Families: A Scoping Review Cohen-Silver J, Artyukh I, Puinean G, et al. | Academic Pediatrics

Under Pressure and Underrecognized: The Role of Social Workers and Case Managers in Screening for Social Determinants of Health in the United States Habrat ML, Nelson LD, Nelson DA | Journal of Patient-Centered Research and Reviews