Michigan HIE Implementing Alerts for Social Determinants of Health

Great Lakes Health Connect (GLHC), Michigan’s health information exchange (HIE), is partnering with health IT solutions company Holon Solutions to enable alerts that address patients’ physical, mental and social determinants of health.

The engagement is part of GLHC's strategic plan to meet the goals of Michigan's State Innovation Model, which mandates standards for providers' management of Medicaid populations, the organization said in a press release.

GLHC, based in Grand Rapids, has a network of 129 hospitals and more than 4,000 primary, specialty, and allied care organizations, and a longitudinal health record of nearly nine million unique patient records.

Holon's CollaborNet technology will be used to integrate clinical and non-clinical data, including social determinants. The solution will present information in unobtrusive, intelligent alerts within the workflow, allowing minimal dependency on electronic health record vendors, according to the press release. The technology also will enable providers to seamlessly refer patients to community organizations that can assist with social health issues, such as transportation or housing.

“Holon takes the sea of data and makes it very relevant to a specific patient and his or her needs,” Doug Dietzman, executive director at GLHC, said in a statement. “This is critical, because our users are looking to us to help them solve their very local problems. We want to constantly anticipate answers to, 'How do we advance the care and experience for this patient in front of us today?' and 'How can we be more intuitive and make providers' lives easier?' The solution has to be local and it has to be in the workflow – so we're thrilled that Holon will be our partner on this journey. Their technology helps us meet our technical and our strategic goals.”

“GLHC has established itself as a leader in the national HIE space,” Bryant Castleton, CEO at Holon, said in a prepared statement. “We're very excited to be working with an organization that's so committed to serving patients' unique needs, in a state that is committed to healthcare as not just physical, but also mental and social health. We've tailored our product's referral functionality for GLHC's mass deployment, to allow physicians to refer patients seamlessly not just to other physicians, but to community organizations that assist with social health needs. We're looking forward helping make Michigan a healthier state.”