Social determinants of health (SDOH) are the economic, social andenvironmental factors that influence health outcomes, oftentimes before patients are even sick. The lifestyles and conditions in which people grow, live and work directly impact their healthand longevity. These factors are often invisible to care providers but are powerful drivers of individual well-being and broader population healthcare disparities.Surprisingly, research estimates thatdirect clinical care affects just 20% of county-level differences in health outcomes, while SDOH affect up to 50%.
In the summer 2023 IR Quarterly, Hirschel D. McGinnis, MD, FSIR, disussed SDOH to help providers understand the lived experiences that contribute to the health problems they see every day in the clinic. But there's so much more to the discussion. In this roundup, read more articles on the topics touched on by Dr. McGinnis and learn more about some of the initiatives that IRs are creating to overcome some of the barriers created by SDOH.
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Informed care
Health literacy is a crucial part of the consenting process. But for many patients, there are barriers to full understanding.
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Interventional radiology comes home
Across a 30-mile radius in rural northwest Indiana, more than 1,000 patients with multiple chronic conditions are confined to their homes or to nursing facilities and encounter difficulty receiving care they need for their chronic conditions.
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Crossing the IR desert
When I started my career in Charleston, West Virginia, I was the only interventional radiologist in a community of 50,000 people. I was already somewhat familiar with the challenges faced by patients in remote communities, having previously worked...
