RISE looks at recent headlines concerning social determinants of health (SDoH).
HHS announces LEAP in Health IT funding opportunity
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), through the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC), announced a funding opportunity under the Leading Edge Acceleration projects (LEAP) in Health IT Special Emphasis Notice published this week.
ONC is seeking applications for funding for projects that focus on one of two areas:
- Innovative, scalable solutions to improve the quality of health care data used by artificial intelligence tools in health care available in electronic health records technologies.
- The adoption of health IT in behavioral health to improve care coordination between behavioral health and clinical health care settings.
“These two areas of interest are a natural extension of ONC’s work,” said Steve Posnack, deputy national coordinator for health information technology, in a statement. “We look forward to receiving innovative applications and seeing the impacts generated by selected awardees.”
Virtual care for maternal mental health
A recent study published by Health Affairs indicates that text- and telephone-based screening can improve rates of screening, identification, and attendance to treatment for women with perinatal mental health disorders and perinatal substance-use disorders (SUDs).
The study, conducted by a research team from the Medical University of South Carolina, compared outcomes among women who participated in the Listening to Women and Pregnant Postpartum People (LTWP) program, a text-and telephone-based screening and referral program, and women who received usual in-person care between January 2021 to April 2023.
They found program participation to increase screening, referral to treatment, and attendance to treatment.
Key findings include:
- LTWP participants were three times more likely to be screened compared to women with usual care, 9.4 times more likely to screen positive, 13.2 times more likely to be referred to treatment, and 17.1 times more likely to attend treatment.
- Of the total number of women who completed screenings, LTWP participants, compared to women receiving usual care, were 3.1 times more likely to screen positive, 4.4 times more likely to be referred to treatment, and 5.7 times more likely to attend treatment compared to women with usual care.
“This study represents a step forward in informing strategies for improved screening for and identification of perinatal mental health disorders and perinatal SUDs and attendance to treatment for peripartum people,” wrote the researchers. “These findings are important, given that improving the detection and treatment of maternal mental health conditions has the potential to reduce preventable causes of maternal morbidity and mortality.”
LEP patients have worse experiences with telehealth
Patients with limited English proficiency (LEP) have worse experiences with telehealth, according to a new study published by JAMA Network Open.
The study examined data from the 2021 California Health Interview Survey of 24,453 patients. Of the total patients included in the study, nine percent were LEP patients, which is defined as speaking English not well or not at all, and seven percent were LEP patients who used telehealth.
Of telehealth users, patients with LEP accounted for 6.8 percent of video visit users and 8.1 percent of telephone visit users.
The researchers found that patients with LEP were 37 percent less likely to report video or telephone telehealth use compared to patients with English proficiency (50 percent). They also found patients with LEP to be 40 percent more likely to report worse experiences with video visits than in-person visits.
“Setting up a video visit can require high-speed internet and a device. It may require creating a login for a new platform. If you’re someone with limited English proficiency, you might need an interpreter to be involved. There are a lot of different pieces to navigate,” said lead author Jorge Rodriguez, M.D., a clinician-investigator in the Brigham’s Division of General Internal Medicine and Primary Care, in the study announcement. “If you're a patient who doesn't speak the language that the technology is built in, just getting onto the platform is challenging.”