Chairs

Current SIG Co-Chairs:

Aditi Vasan, MD, MSHP

Zoe Bouchelle, MD, MSHP

Yonit Lax, MD 

Erika Cordova Ramos, MD

Social determinants/drivers of health at the individual, family and community levels significantly impact child health outcomes. A growing number of pediatric clinicians and health systems have recently implemented programs focused on identifying and addressing unmet social needs among children and their families. The American Academy of Pediatrics, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, and several state Medicaid agencies have released guidelines or mandates recommending that standardized social needs screening be conducted in health care settings. Addressing these social factors is not only important for improving overall child health, but also for reducing health inequities that are often rooted in social and economic disadvantage.  

Despite the increasing investment and enthusiasm in developing interventions to address unmet social needs, there remain gaps in our understanding of (1) optimal strategies for implementation of social needs screening across health care settings, and (2) ways to design programs and processes to help ensure that families with unmet social needs are connected with useful, available and appropriate community-based resources.  

Goals of this SIG: 

  1. Provide a forum for APA members to engage in dialogue, share resources, and disseminate best practices for social needs screening and referral across health care settings. 
  1. Foster an environment in which APA members at different career stages can establish productive and supportive mentoring relationships around their shared interest in understanding and addressing social determinants/drivers of health.  
  1. Create opportunities for APA members to collaborate on educational, research, and advocacy efforts related to addressing social determinants of health. 
  1. Establish high-quality programming focused on addressing social determinants/drivers of health in pediatrics in the form of webinars, and sessions and/or workshops at regional APA meetings and PAS meetings. 

Join the SDOH SIG

Annual Summary

In 2022 and 2023, more than 150 APA members attended a Social Determinants of Health networking breakout session at the annual Pediatric Academic Societies meeting. Attendees at these events expressed interest in building ongoing collaborations focused on implementation of social needs screening and referral, mentorship surrounding shared interests in addressing social needs, and collaborative research and advocacy aimed at addressing social determinants/drivers of child health.  

There has also been growing interest in research around social determinants of health. An increasing number of research abstracts focused on health equity / SDOH have been submitted to the national Pediatric Academic Societies conference over the past several years (136 in 2021, 191 in 2022, and 233 in 2023). 

The creation of this SIG will build on the very successful networking sessions and research sessions focused on health equity / SDOH at these recent PAS conferences by providing a forum for communication and collaboration around these topics both at future PAS conferences and throughout the year, as APA members seek to translate lessons learned at PAS into their clinical practice.  

Other groups (other SIGs and other groups not in the APA) that work in your area of interest:

  • Serving the Underserved
  • Advocacy Training