Coffee & Science: Hot Topics in Social and Health Care Integration

"Alignment" & "Advocacy" series September 10th - November 19th

SIREN Coffee & Science is a biweekly series of 30-minute conversations between experts in social interventions research, practice, and policy. Join our live events to hear leaders grapple with thorny issues at the intersection of clinical and social care. You can also listen to the conversations on demand at any time by subscribing to our podcast on Apple, Stitcher, Spotify, or using the links below.

Our events are organized around the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s “Five As Framework”, which defined roles that health care organizations can play in integrating social care. For more on what each of the five “As” means and why SIREN adopted this framework for the series, check out our special introductory podcast episode with Dr. Laura Gottlieb and Dr. Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo.

Beginning September 10th, in contrast to the first 3 ‘A’s, Alignment and Advocacy shift the focus from individual patients to communities. Alignment activities enable health care systems to understand their communities’ social care needs and assets, and deploy resources to address social needs at the community level. Advocacy activities bring together health and social care organizations to promote policies that facilitate the creation and redeployment of resources to address health and social needs.

We hope you will join us for these upcoming conversations, all on Fridays from 9:30-10am Pacific (12:30-1pm Eastern):

September 10: Clinic-Based Community Organizing to Improve Health Equity – Hilary Mar Lopez Nichols, OHSU Family Medicine at Richmond Clinic, and Toffer Lehnherr, Partnership Health Center
September 24: The Health Care Anchor Model– Wylie Liu, MPH, MPA, UCSF, and Darlene Hightower, JD, Rush University Medical Center
October 8: Community-Hospital Collaborations to Improve Neighborhoods – Kelly Kelleher, MD, Nationwide Children’s Hospital, and Rev. John Edgar, United Methodist Church & Community Development for All People
October 22: Taking Action on Housing as a Political Determinant of Health – Bich Ha Pham, JD, Healthcare Anchor Network, and Mike Koprowski MA, Ed.M, National Low Income Housing Coalition
November 5: Using Procurement to Support Sustainable Local Food Systems – Nessia Berner Wong, MPH, Change Lab Solutions and Lauren Poor, MPH, Healthcare Without Harm
November 19: Why and How a Health Center Created a Social Enterprise – Damon Francis, MD, Health Leads, and Noha Aboelata, MD, Roots Community Health Center

Register for the Coffee & Science series here

Latest Episodes

Community-Hospital Collaborations to Improve Neighborhoods

October 19, 2021 26:40

This episode features a conversation between Kelly Kelleher, a pediatrician and Vice President for Community Health and Community Health Services Research at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, and Reverend John Edgar, who is the Executive Director and Pastor Emeritus at United Methodist Church & Community Development for All People. This is the third in a series of six Coffee & Science events on topics related to Alignment and Advocacy, which are the last two “A”s of the National Academy of Medicine’s framework that SIREN has used to organize Coffee & Science. Alignment and Advocacy are both about what health care can do at the community level to address social conditions. This conversation explores how a children’s hospital and faith-based community development corporation have partnered to improve health and health equity in disadvantaged neighborhoods in Columbus, Ohio.

The Health Care Anchor Model

October 04, 2021 25:38

This episode features a conversation between Wylie Liu, MPH, MPA, Executive Director of the Center for Community Engagement at the University of California, San Francisco, and Darlene Oliver Hightower, JD, Vice President, Community Health Equity at Rush University Medical Center. This is the second in a series of six Coffee & Science events on topics related to Alignment and Advocacy, which are the last two “A”s of the National Academy of Medicine’s framework that SIREN’s used to organize Coffee & Science. Alignment and Advocacy are both about what health care can do at the community level to address social conditions. This conversation explores the pillars of Rush’s healthcare anchor institution model and its health equity work.

Clinic-Based Community Organizing to Improve Health Equity

September 21, 2021 28:16

This episode features a conversation between two health center-based community organizers: Hilary Mar Lopez Nichols, from Oregon Health Sciences University Family Medicine Clinic at Richmond, and Toffer Lehnherr, from Partnership Health Center in Missoula, Montana. This is the first in a series of six Coffee & Science events on topics related to Alignment and Advocacy, which are the last two “A”s of the National Academy of Medicine’s framework that SIREN’s used to organize Coffee & Science. Alignment and Advocacy are both about what health care can do at the community level to address social needs. In this conversation, Hilary and Toffer share their experiences with using community organizing in clinical settings to help advance health equity. For resources mentioned in this episode, visit
https://sirenetwork.ucsf.edu/podcast/clinic--based-community-organizing-improve-health-equity

Are Real Time Pharmacy Benefits Tools Actually Social Care Adjustments?

September 08, 2021 26:20

This episode features a conversation between Emmy Ganos, PhD, Senior Program Officer at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Stacie Dusetzina, PhD, Associate Professor of Health Policy and Ingram Associate Professor of Cancer Research at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. This session is the last of four talks focused on health care sector efforts to Adjust clinical care based on information about patients’ social circumstances. In this conversation, Emmy and Stacie dive into the implications of real-time pharmacy benefit tools and explore what we know about patient and provider preferences when it comes to conversations about medication costs. For resources mentioned in this episode, visit https://sirenetwork.ucsf.edu/podcast/are-real-time-pharmacy-benefits-tools-actually-social-care-adjustments

The Promise and Pitfalls of Adjusting Care to Context

August 23, 2021 26:01

This episode features a conversation between Kedar Mate, MD, President and CEO of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement and Saul Weiner, MD, Professor of Medicine, Pediatrics and Medical Education, Director of the Clinical Leaders and Academic Scholars Fellowship at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and Deputy Director of the Center of Innovation for Complex Chronic Health Care at the Veterans Health Administration. This session is the third of four talks focused on health care sector efforts to Adjust clinical care based on information about patients’ social circumstances. In this conversation, Kedar and Saul explore the intersection of social care adjustment and the practice of contextualizing care and raise questions about both potential benefits and unintended consequences of implementing contextualized care. For resources mentioned in this episode, visit
https://sirenetwork.ucsf.edu/podcast/Promise-Pitfalls-Adjusting-Care-Context

Opportunities for Informatics to Inform Social Care Adjustment Strategies

August 09, 2021 26:37

This episode features a conversation between Julia Adler-Milstein, Professor of Medicine and Director of the Center for Clinical Informatics and Improvement Research at the University of California, San Francisco and Tiffany Veinot, Professor of Health Behavior and Health Education cross-appointed at the School of Information and School of Public Health at the University of Michigan. This session is second of four talks focused on health care sector efforts to Adjust clinical care based on information about patients’ social circumstances. In this conversation, Julia and Tiffany explore the emerging discipline of social care informatics and ways informatics can support care adjustment strategies. For resources mentioned in this episode, visit
https://sirenetwork.ucsf.edu/podcast/opportunities-informatics-inform-social-care-adjustment-strategies

Using Clinical Decision Support Tools to Contextualize Care

July 26, 2021 25:24

This episode features a conversation between Danielle Hessler Jones, PhD, SIREN investigator and Professor in the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco and Rachel Gold, PhD, MPH, an investigator at the Kaiser Permanente Northwest Center for Health Research and Lead Research Scientist at the OCHIN community health information network. This session is first of four talks focused on health care sector efforts to Adjust clinical care based on information about patients’ social circumstances. In this conversation, Danielle and Rachel define Adjustment and explore research on the use of clinical decision support tools that might facilitate related interventions. For resources mentioned in this episode, visit https://sirenetwork.ucsf.edu/podcast/using-clinical-support-tools-contextualize-care

Delivering Social Care in the Virtual Frontier

June 28, 2021 26:43

This episode features a conversation between Tamara J. Cadet, PhD, LICSW, MPH, an Associate Professor at the Simmons School of Social Work and faculty at the Harvard School of Dental Medicine in Oral Health Policy and Epidemiology, and Bonnie Ewald, MA, the Associate Director of the Center for Health and Social Care Integration and Program Manager of Strategic Development and Policy for Rush University Medical Center’s Social Work and Community Health Department. This session is the sixth and final talk focused on health care sector efforts to provide patients with social service Assistance. In this conversation, Tammy and Bonnie dive into tele-social care practices, including ways these practices were affected by the COVID pandemic. Surfacing the perspectives of both patients and providers, they also explore the benefits and barriers to delivering social care by phone and video. For resources mentioned in this episode, visit https://sirenetwork.ucsf.edu/podcast/delivering-social-care-the-virtual-frontier

Should Community Resource Referral Platforms be a Public Good?

June 15, 2021 25:34

This episode features a conversation between Lauren Taylor, PhD, MDiv, MPH, a postdoctoral scholar at NYU School of Medicine, and Kelly Cronin, MPH, MS, Deputy Administrator, Innovation and Partnership at HHS Administration for Community Living. This session is the fifth in a series focused on health care sector efforts to provide Assistance to patients to reduce their social risks. In this conversation, Lauren and Kelly explore pressing questions surrounding the governance and interoperability of software platforms marketed to health care systems and designed to streamline information about and connection to community resources to address social needs. For resources mentioned in this episode and audience Q&A, visit https://sirenetwork.ucsf.edu/podcast/should-community-resource-referral-platforms-public-good

Evaluation of the Accountable Health Communities Model

June 02, 2021 24:07

This episode features a conversation between Lucia Rojas-Smith, DrPH, MPH, Director of the Center for Community Health Evaluation and Economic Research at RTI and Shannon O’Connor, PhD, MS, MA, a social science research analyst at the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation. This session is the fourth in a series focused on health care sector efforts to provide Assistance to patients to reduce their social risks. Drs. Rojas-Smith and O’Connor discussed findings from the Accountable Health Communities (AHC) Model’s first annual report. For resources mentioned in this episode visit https://sirenetwork.ucsf.edu/podcast/evaluation-the-accountable-health-communities-model