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. 2022 Oct 9;12(10):1449.
doi: 10.3390/biom12101449.

From Genes to Geography, from Cells to Community, from Biomolecules to Behaviors: The Importance of Social Determinants of Health

Jaysón Davidson  1   2 , Rohit Vashisht  2 , Atul J Butte  2
Affiliations

From Genes to Geography, from Cells to Community, from Biomolecules to Behaviors: The Importance of Social Determinants of Health

Jaysón Davidson et al. Biomolecules. .

Abstract

Much scientific work over the past few decades has linked health outcomes and disease risk to genomics, to derive a better understanding of disease mechanisms at the genetic and molecular level. However, genomics alone does not quite capture the full picture of one's overall health. Modern computational biomedical research is moving in the direction of including social/environmental factors that ultimately affect quality of life and health outcomes at both the population and individual level. The future of studying disease now lies at the hands of the social determinants of health (SDOH) to answer pressing clinical questions and address healthcare disparities across population groups through its integration into electronic health records (EHRs). In this perspective article, we argue that the SDOH are the future of disease risk and health outcomes studies due to their vast coverage of a patient's overall health. SDOH data availability in EHRs has improved tremendously over the years with EHR toolkits, diagnosis codes, wearable devices, and census tract information to study disease risk. We discuss the availability of SDOH data, challenges in SDOH implementation, its future in real-world evidence studies, and the next steps to report study outcomes in an equitable and actionable way.

Keywords: census tract; data science; electronic health records; real-world evidence; social determinants of health.

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Conflict of interest statement

Atul Butte is a co-founder and consultant to Personalis and NuMedii; consultant to Mango Tree Corporation, and in the recent past, Samsung, 10x Genomics, Helix, Pathway Genomics, and Verinata (Illumina); has served on paid advisory panels or boards for Geisinger Health, Regenstrief Institute, Gerson Lehman Group, AlphaSights, Covance, Novartis, Genentech, Merck, and Roche; is a shareholder in Personalis and NuMedii; is a minor shareholder in Apple, Meta (Facebook), Alphabet (Google), Microsoft, Amazon, Snap, 10x Genomics, Illumina, Regeneron, Sanofi, Pfizer, Royalty Pharma, Moderna, Sutro, Doximity, BioNtech, Invitae, Pacific Biosciences, Editas Medicine, Nuna Health, Assay Depot, and Vet24seven, and several other non-health-related companies and mutual funds; and has received honoraria and travel reimbursement for invited talks from Johnson and Johnson, Roche, Genentech, Pfizer, Merck, Lilly, Takeda, Varian, Mars, Siemens, Optum, Abbott, Celgene, AstraZeneca, AbbVie, Westat, and many academic institutions, medical or disease-specific foundations and associations, and health systems. Atul Butte receives royalty payments through Stanford University for several patents and other disclosures licensed to NuMedii and Personalis. Atul Butte’s research has been funded by NIH, Peraton (as the prime on an NIH contract), Genentech, Johnson and Johnson, FDA, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Leon Lowenstein Foundation, Intervalien Foundation, Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg, the Barbara and Gerson Bakar Foundation, and in the recent past, the March of Dimes, Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, California Governor’s Office of Planning and Research, California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, L’Oreal, and Progenity.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Grouped SDOH factors are categorized at the population and individual levels. At each level, we define the SDOH factors that contribute to the overall health of a population and the overall health of a patient, which mark the difference between a good outcome and a poor outcome.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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