Understanding the Value of Community Vital Signs in Primary Care

Social determinants of health (e.g. the income, education, and environment of patients) may exert greater influence on health outcomes than traditional clinical factors (e.g. lab results, diagnoses, and family history). Calls for integrating primary care and public health are therefore increasing, but merging these domains of care is logistically difficult. Research is lacking on the incremental benefit of adding public health data at the practice level-- in improving either health outcomes or care delivery. This proof of concept pilot will merge data from electronic health records (EHRs) with community vital signs, a set of metrics that describes key community resources that affect health. The investigators will identify resource poor communities, or cold spots, based on four variables (education, poverty, life expectancy, and access to healthy foods) at the census tract level - referred to as a community vital sign. The hypothesis is that patients coming from cold spots are more likely to have worse health outcomes and that clinicians will deliver better care if they know a patient's community context and his/her specific social needs. This study will involve 12 primary care practices in Northern Virginia that care for more than 170,000 patients. Patient addresses will be geocoded for each practice and determine which patients reside in cold spots for each community vital sign. The variation for each community vital sign for each practice's patients will be calculated and a bivariate and regression analyses will be used to determine whether coming from a cold spot is associated with worse clinical quality metrics. 15 clinicians will be alerted when they see a patient from a cold spot, patients will complete a social needs survey, and clinicians will prospectively document through surveys whether such knowledge affects interpersonal interactions (such as time spent with patients and the use of clearer language) or clinical management (such as referrals to care coordination or community resources). By pragmatically integrating community vital signs into care, this innovative proposal will seek to understand which community data clinicians value, how these data might influence care, and how best to incorporate these data into clinical and population care.

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Key information

Conditions

Colon Cancer Breast Cancer Breast Diseases Breast Neoplasms Cardiovascular Disease Cardiovascular Diseases Cervical Cancer Colonic Diseases Colonic Neoplasms Colorectal Neoplasms Digestive System Diseases Digestive System Neoplasms Female Urogenital Diseases Female Urogenital Diseases and Pregnancy Complications Gastrointestinal Diseases Gastrointestinal Neoplasms Genital Diseases Genital Diseases, Female Genital Diseases, Male Genital Neoplasms, Female Genital Neoplasms, Male Intestinal Diseases Intestinal Neoplasms Male Urogenital Diseases Neoplasms Neoplasms by Site Prostate Cancer Prostatic Diseases Prostatic Neoplasms Skin Diseases Skin and Connective Tissue Diseases Urogenital Diseases Urogenital Neoplasms Uterine Cervical Diseases Uterine Cervical Neoplasms Uterine Diseases Uterine Neoplasms

Age range

18 year–99 year

Sex eligibility

All sexes

Study type

Observational

Primary location

Fairfax Family Practice Centers, Fairfax, Virginia, United States

About this study

The investigators will integrate community vital signs into clinical data, identify cold spots, and determine prospectively how clinicians use these community data at the point of care and for populations of patients. The investigators hypothesize that (1) the patients in a primary care practice live in a range of communities with different social determinants of health, including cold spots that lack health-promoting resources, (2) community vital signs are associated with patient health outcomes (e.g., being up-to-date with preventive care, control of chronic conditions, morbidity), and (3) knowing that a patient resides in a cold spot will help clinicians improve patient care.

Aim 1a: Determine community vital sign cold spots in the catchment area of 12 primary care practices.

Aim 1b: Determine whether patients residing in cold spots experience worse outcomes, such as receiving inadequate care, worse chronic disease control, or higher morbidity.

Aim 2: Determine whether knowing a patient's community vital signs and social needs at the point of care will change clinical management; and explore how practices could use community vital signs for population care.

Aim 3: Identify other community vital signs that practices would find useful for managing patients.

Who can participate

Healthy volunteers accepted: Yes

Only the study team can determine whether someone qualifies for participation.

Inclusion criteria

Aims 1a and 1b: Patients seen at one of the 12 study practices
Aims 2 and 3: Clinicians at one of the 12 study practices

Exclusion criteria

Aims 1a and 1b: Patients outside of the age range
Aims 2 and 3: Clinicians involved with the design of the research protocol.

Treatment and study plan

Community vital signs

Other

We will present clinicians with information about their patients' communities

Primary outcomes

Quality of care

Time frame: The past 5 years

Likelihood patient living in a cold spot received recommended cancer screening and cardiovascular preventive care based on National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) quality measures.

Secondary outcomes

ACG morbidity risk score

Time frame: Past 5 years

Likelihood a patient living in a cold spot has a higher Adjusted Clinical Group (ACG) risk score than patient not living in a cold spot.
Change in care

Time frame: Up to one year

Physician report on whether they change care in response to knowing a patient lives in a cold spot.

Sponsors and collaborators

Lead sponsor

Virginia Commonwealth University

Other

Registry information

Important dates

Study start: 2015
Primary completion: 2016
Study completion: 2016
First posted: Jul 31, 2015
Registry last updated: Feb 28, 2018

OpenTrials presents study information sourced from ClinicalTrials.gov. The official registry record should be consulted for the latest information.

View the official ClinicalTrials.gov record (opens in a new tab)

This listing is for discovery and informational purposes only. It is not medical advice, does not guarantee that a study is recruiting, and does not determine eligibility. Contact the study team and a qualified healthcare professional when considering participation.

Published trials that share one or more normalized conditions with this study.

Completed