Patients in context--EHR capture of social and behavioral determinants of health

Although social and behavioral factors influence health and mortality, such determinants are often ignored in clinical practice. A few, such as smoking and alcohol use, are commonly assessed by primary care physicians, but many others may be viewed as outside the scope of medical practice. Calls for clinicians to attend to these factors are increasing,and several developments are accelerating the medical community's interest in addressing them. We hope that a new set of standard screening measures for social and behavioral determinants of health, delineated by an Institute of Medicine (IOM) committee that we cochaired, will catalyze action on this front.