EXPANDING CLIENT BASE SOFTWARE
EXPANDING CLIENT BASE SERIES

The software generates FICO-like social risk scores that customers can use to better understand social risk among their community and drive health equity.

Socially Determined made that data usable by creating analytic models to assess multiple SDOH domains - such as transportation access, reliable housing, food insecurity and social connectedness - as well as a platform and user interface to explore the insights those analytics uncover. To build technology that gives healthcare organizations a more accurate view of the SDOH affecting the patients they serve, Williams said his team gathered datasets from both public and private sources, using data that is continuously updated in order to make insights stronger. He also pointed out that this method does not scale and only provides the opportunity to offer help after someone is facing an issue.

However, Williams said screenings have some major limitations since this method of tracking SDOH only touches those who come into contact with the healthcare system, allowing the most vulnerable people to slip through the cracks. Most healthcare organizations identify the SDOH impacting their community from one-on-one screenings or anecdotal evidence. “For example, it’s easy to talk to someone with prediabetes about how they should eat healthier, but you don’t know if they can afford healthy food, if there are healthy food options in the neighborhood where they live, or if they have the transportation to get someplace where there are options,” he said. Williams said he was compelled to launch Socially Determined during his time as a practicing physician, in which he noticed the healthcare system was operating with a “severely obstructed” view of the factors that influence patients’ health. The round brings the Washington, D.C.-based company’s total capital raised to date to $36 million.

EXPANDING CLIENT BASE SERIES

On Tuesday, the startup closed a $26 million Series B funding round led by Questa Capital, with participation from existing investors LRVHealth, OSF Healthcare, Ziegler Link-Age Funds and HealthWorx, the investment arm of CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield. This problem led Trenor Williams to found Socially Determined, a healthcare analytics startup focused on SDOH insights, in 2017. Traditionally, healthcare organizations have only had access to clinical and claims data about the patients they serve, but social factors like access to transportation, housing or healthy food usually have more of an impact on a person’s health than even their own genes. Providers and payers have a steadfast mission to care for patients and communities, but they are often carrying out that mission without access to data on the factors that influence healthcare costs and outcomes the most: social determinants of health.

Expanding client base