Using Design Thinking to Advance SDOH Data Exchange Initiatives

The following is a guest article by Sarah Samis, VP, Public Health Products & Platforms at GCOM.

Chronic diseases, which most Americans have at least one of, are the leading causes of death and disability in the U.S. These ongoing and usually incurable diseases account for more than 80% of hospital admissions, 90% of prescriptions filled, and 75% of all physician’s visits. Two-thirds of all deaths are caused by five chronic diseases in particular: heart disease, cancer, stroke, diabetes, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. 

Preventing and managing chronic disease is not solely a job for an individual and their doctors, though. The conditions in which we work, live, and play can impact our health dramatically. Disparities in social determinants of health (SDOH)—which include one’s education, social life, and environment, to name a few—contribute to racial and socioeconomic disparities regarding chronic disease as well. 

In recent years, improvements in technology and data exchange standards have made real-time sharing of data on SDOH more possible than ever. This data can help public agencies map out challenges hindering the prevention and control of chronic diseases and health disparities—particularly if it’s approached with design thinking.

What is Design Thinking?

Design thinking is a way to tackle any given problem creatively, almost as a designer would. It’s been used by big-name brands like Apple and Google, in addition to universities like Stanford and Harvard. It’s meant to spark ideas that are a bit outside the box. 

Design thinking is usually broken down into five steps:

• Empathize with your audience: Frame the problem with the people it affects in mind. In a government context, this means focusing on the lives and well-being of citizens.
• Define the problem: In this case, the problem is the prevalence of chronic disease.
• Ideate on the solution: Develop ideas to address the problem of chronic disease.
• Prototype your solution: Create a prototype of the solution you’ll use to fix the problem.
• Test your prototype: Test your solution before deploying it to ensure that it works as intended.

This iterative process can help public agencies get the most value from SDOH data. They can use the data to challenge assumptions, redefine problems, and create innovative solutions for reducing the prevalence of chronic disease.

Mapping out Challenges

Recently, I joined a working group on this very topic. It brought together experts from the public and private sector and was hosted by the CDC’s National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion and supported by The Gravity Project. We used design thinking to better map out current challenges and high-priority use cases. 

First, we built personas for people who would be using SDOH data to improve outcomes. The personas ranged from public health analysts to care coordinators. We then thought about how these government actors would interact with different systems, from electronic health records to trusted intermediaries.

Then, we defined the problem. We pinpointed numerous specific challenges that current stakeholders face in their work. For example, we discovered the main challenge for the public health analyst was a lack of consistent and timely data, while the care coordinator struggled to locate support services for his patients because resource lists were outdated. We knew such hurdles must be addressed so that stakeholders can fully leverage their SDOH data.  

Design thinking helped us approach the entire working group with more creativity and flexibility. In turn, it allowed us to create specific, data-driven solutions that could lead to improved outcomes for citizens. 

The Bottom Line

To truly support the health and well-being of its residents, government actors must be willing to think outside the box. They must approach public health in a holistic manner and implement effective means of data-sharing to fuel a deeper understanding of SDOH and the impacts they have on individuals.

Consensus-based design thinking can help identify SDOH disparities, lead stakeholders to solutions, and solve the complicated problem of intra-and inter-organization data-sharing. By articulating specific use cases and personas, teams can have a clear understanding of human outcomes from the beginning and build their approach from there.  

The unfortunate reality is that health is complicated and diseases can be deadly. But bringing data out of silos and pairing it with a creative problem-solving process is a great first step toward mitigating the prevalence of chronic diseases. 

About Sarah Samis

Sarah Samis is VP, Public Health Products & Platforms at GCOM, where she leads the development of SaaS products bridging public health, healthcare services, and government services addressing the social determinants of health. In 2020, Sarah was a Senior Advisor to the Mayor of New York City, spearheading the COVID response for private hospitals and healthcare providers across the City. Her former roles include Vice President of Care Delivery and Payment Transformation at Geisinger Health System, Chief of Staff at New York City Health & Hospitals, the nation’s largest public hospital system, and senior policy advisor to the New York City’s First Deputy Mayor.