Health Equity and Social Determinants of Health Research

Understanding the Full Picture

Widespread disparities in healthcare quality, access, and outcomes are recognized and increasingly shaped by social determinants of health (SDOH), such as access to transportation to appointments, distances to care, and availability of neighborhood-based pharmacies and providers. Through efforts to address these disparities, health plans and life sciences companies are recognizing the need to understand how diseases and other health conditions impact diverse populations and individuals in distinct ways.

High-quality data on health disparities and SDOH enable life sciences companies to design clinical and real-world trials that capture how a product affects relevant populations differently. These data also allow manufacturers to anticipate potential barriers to treatment uptake within specific patient groups. Health plans use health disparities and SDOH data to better understand their member populations and to design benefits and networks that reflect those individuals’ needs.

Actionable Insights

We can help stakeholders generate real-world quantitative and qualitative data incorporating SDOH to better reflect structural aspects of health disparities and provide actionable insights. For example, we can link multiple mixed-methods datasets and tailor our analysis to a client’s specific use cases and objectives. Leveraging these capabilities, as well as our relationships with key stakeholders across the healthcare continuum, we help life sciences companies and health plans identify underserved patient populations and address health disparities.

We also support clinical development teams in targeting new drugs and developing patient access programs, and we advise payers and providers on customer outreach. We work with clients to identify quality measures and risk adjustment strategies and to develop comprehensive disease management solutions, such as patient education and advocacy efforts.