Feed to heal: Leveraging technology for food insecurity referrals in health care

A simple technology platform built on commercially available software helps track the success of efforts to alleviate food insecurity. As the Covid-19 pandemic has strained the existing food security network, health care systems have faced increasing pressure to screen and refer patients experiencing food insecurity. To be effective, referral efforts must address the limitations of both providers and community-based food resources. Providers often find their referral efforts impeded by insufficient funding, limited personnel, and insufficient knowledge of local community-based organizations (CBOs), while many CBOs are underfunded and have limited operational capacity to accept referrals from health care systems. Created by a primary care physician at the Cambridge Health Alliance, Feed to Heal is a nonprofit organization that leverages technology to address the unique needs of health systems and partner CBOs. The Feed to Heal platform is an automated tool that connects patients with pertinent food programming after they are flagged for food insecurity in the electronic health record. The platform is a closed-loop system that collects patient utilization data to facilitate the development of improved food security interventions. The Feed to Heal system has successfully referred more than 1,000 patients to food resources, although it has had mixed success in promoting patient utilization of the resources to which they are referred. Feed to Heal’s experience demonstrates that automated referral is a promising tool for coordinating food insecurity care between health systems and CBOs, but more research is needed to identify and address the obstacles to patient utilization of food resources.