According to a Feb. 23 press release, Cleveland-based The Center for Health Affairs, a regional hospital association, and Amazon Web Services (AWS) are collaborating to establish a Social Determinants of Health (SDOH) Innovation Hub. The goal of the hub is to address structural racism and poverty that result in gun violence, behavioral health crises, and other factors that negatively impact the health of local residents. The hub is going to act first locally then move globally.
The press release states that “According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Cleveland has the highest poverty rate among large U.S. cities. With more than 114,000 people living in poverty in 2019, including 37,700 children and nearly 12,000 adults, these individuals face daily challenges related to violence, lack of digital connections, housing, food, access to medical care and behavioral health providers, unemployment, and so much more. All of these economic and social conditions that influence health outcomes are known as SDOH, and their impact is often under-represented in traditional diagnoses.”
Further, “Root causes of these SDOH challenges are structural racism and poverty; and The Center is committed to finding solutions for these very complex social and economic issues using next generation technology. Tackling SDOH challenges requires accurate and insightful data, which can be complex and costly to collect and analyze. The cloud capabilities will enable the rapid analysis of heterogenous data from hundreds of local partner organizations using AWS's compute, storage, machine learning, and other services to determine patterns and indicators that will better inform health action and policies. The platform will analyze data that AWS does not have access to or control. The insights will be used by a consortium of commercial and public sector healthcare and research organizations.”
With The Center, individuals from local businesses, nonprofit organizations, government officials, community residents, and policy makers will serve as advisors to drive action from gathered data. The goal, over time, is to use these learnings to address the impact of environmental factors on marginalized communities, create jobs and training, and make investment decisions for underserved neighborhoods. AWS will provide The Center with computing credits and technical expertise on the project.
The first issue the SDOH Hub will address is behavioral health precursors to gun violence. Then the Hub will work to find solutions for climate change, access to healthcare, maternal and infant deaths, digital connectivity, education and workforce development, entrepreneurship, urban development, housing, and transportation.
The Center has an initial three-year commitment to finding solutions for SDOH issues.
Cleveland Mayor Justin M. Bibb was quoted in the release saying that “We are encouraged by the desire for collaboration from a wide range of partners, including technologists, to address community health needs. Using technology to help solve the root causes of gun violence is a potential tool in the comprehensive toolbox necessary to develop real and effective solutions that will positively impact our great city and the surrounding region.”
