In the past decade, we saw health equity move into the mainstream. Healthcare organizations publicly proclaimed their commitment to health equity and made investments in programs and partnerships to address health-related social needs. Community organizations scaled up to meet the demand, and new startups formed to streamline screening and referrals.
Now, much of these once voluntary initiatives are being codified into law. Since 2020, state legislatures have introduced and enacted hundreds of laws requiring healthcare organizations to address health disparities.
Today we find ourselves with even more reasons to address health inequities, and a decade’s worth of evidence to sift through. But that’s only part of the equation.
Healthcare organizations can increasingly access data and tools to identify the “what”—the social needs driving healthcare inequities and unnecessary costs and utilization.
The challenge now is identifying the “how.” Which specific interventions will work in what context and with what resources?
Enter The Social Needs Investment Lab, a key part of the new Social Needs Investment Lab: a platform designed to help healthcare and social service organizations make evidence-based decisions about social needs interventions.
Challenges to Investing Social Needs Interventions
While many organizations now recognize the importance of addressing social drivers of health, identifying which programs will make the most impact in their specific context is a different story. Without a simple and streamlined resource, many organizations face obstacles such as:
- Uncertainty about effectiveness: With a vast variety of programs targeting social needs, it’s difficult to determine which ones are backed by evidence and effective for particular populations or environments.
- Outdated information: Without a maintained and updated library, organizations often rely on fragmented or outdated information.
- Redundant work: The absence of a single, user-friendly resource for assessing interventions means that many organizations are doing the same research and trying to evaluate the same studies, leading to unnecessary costs and inefficiencies.
- Sustaining community organizations: Social service providers delivering these essential interventions need help positioning their programs and aligning their operations with healthcare, essential steps for funding and forming partnerships.
If you’re experiencing one of these obstacles, you’re in good company! We’ve heard these challenges from many of our partners and created a resource to address these gaps.
Introducing the Evidence Assessment Library
The Evidence Assessment Library is an online repository of evidence assessments, each dedicated to a specific health-related social needs intervention. We’re starting with four Evidence Assessments focused on interventions for Food Access. The Library is designed to provide comprehensive, reliable information on interventions in an accessible, actionable format. Key features of the Library include:
- Targeted search and filtering: Users can search for specific interventions or explore assessments by filtering categories such as social need (e.g., transportation or food access), payer type, age group, and health condition, among others. This makes it easy for users to find relevant interventions aligned with their unique needs.
- Detailed evidence assessments: Each assessment includes essential information on evidence supporting the intervention’s effectiveness, which outcomes it impacts, and the populations it benefits. In addition, every assessment provides context on the social need, a description of the intervention, and a study-by-study evidence review.
- More coming soon: Each intervention assessment will include ranges for the estimated cost to implement the intervention and the percentage impact on outcomes, providing organizations with critical data for business cases, budgeting, and planning.
- Monthly updates: We will be adding new Evidence Assessments each month.
By providing structured, detailed assessments of interventions, the Library empowers organizations to make informed choices while helping social service organizations better articulate the value of their services.
In early 2025 we’ll be releasing more tools in the Social Needs Investment Lab, so make sure to sign up to stay informed!