EPISODE
05

The US Playbook to Address Social Determinants of Health

How do we move beyond “admiring” problems caused by social determinants of health, to truly addressing problems? The US Playbook to Address Social Determinants of Playbook offers a way. The lead author of that whole-of-government strategy joins us on Quality Matters.

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About The Guest

Episode Description

We know social factors impact health. But knowing isn’t enough.

To help bridge gaps in care and health outcomes related to social factors, the Department of Health and Human Services published the US Playbook to Address Social Determinants of Health.

In this episode of Quality Matters, we speak to the Playbook’s lead author, Dr. Sandra Ford. Dr. Ford is a pediatrician and longtime advocate with deep experience leading local public health efforts, mainly in the Atlanta region. She worked at the White House from 2021 to 2023.

“We are not going to doctor ourselves out of the healthcare crisis. To address health care crises in this nation, we need to understand how are people living, what they’re missing. We need to ask questions around how people live their lives. It’s cheaper to give somebody a food prescription than it is to treat an amputee from diabetes. So if we ask the questions on the front end of what people need, we’re better able to serve them from a clinical perspective.”
Sandra Ford, MD, MBA

Dive Deeper

Timestamps

(2:49) Playbook Pillar 1: Data Gathering & Data Sharing
(6:10) Playbook Pillar 2: Flexible Funding to Support Social Needs
(8:13 ) Playbook Pillar 3: Supporting Backbone Organizations
(10:41) The Primacy of Data
(12:48) Lessons Learned

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