Driving Change Through Data: Advancing Health Equity and Understanding Social Drivers of Health
A guest expert from Inovalon and AMCP 2025 presenter shares insights on groundbreaking research leveraging social drivers of health data to advance health equity, improve outcomes, and drive systemic change in health care.
Please share your name, title, and a brief overview of your professional history.
My name is Christie Teigland, PhD. I am the Vice President of Research Science & Advanced Analytics at Inovalon. I lead studies focused on quality measurement, health equity, health economics, and outcomes research. I also work closely with health plans, providers, and life science organizations to develop actionable real-world data insights. I co-chaired the National Quality Forum (NQF) Scientific Methods Panel for 4 years and served on the Pharmacy Quality Alliance (PQA) Quality Measure Expert Panel and as co-chair of PQA’s Health Equity Technical Expert Panel, as well as many Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) expert panels. I also have served as principal investigator on large foundation and government-funded projects over 3 decades focused on improving health care quality.
I’ve published extensively in peer-reviewed journals, including recent manuscripts evaluating the impact of social drivers of health (SDOH) on outcomes and health equity, and speak at national conferences. Prior to Inovalon, I developed innovative technology solutions to advance use of electronic data-driven decision-making tools in long-term care as director of research at LeadingAge New York. I earned a PhD in Economics and Econometric Forecasting from the University of New York at Albany and a BA in Management Science and Economics from Moorhead State University.
Please share an overview of the recent and upcoming social determinants of health (SDoH) research at Inovalon and how it is expanding understanding and treatment options in health care.
We have published, and continue to conduct and publish, a wide range of research using our Social Drivers of Health (SDOH) data warehouse. We like to call them drivers instead of determinants because the latter sounds like we can’t impact them, when in reality, we can address barriers to access to health care and treatment, drivers of higher hospitalizations and poor outcomes, and so on. Examples of recent manuscripts in highly recognized journals are below.
As more evidence like Inovalon’s work demonstrates the value to the bottom-line of addressing SDOH, more health plans/payers, life science companies, providers, and other stakeholders are investing in identifying and addressing SDOH barriers. It has long been recognized as the right thing to do, but now there is concrete evidence that it is imperative to improving health outcomes and lowering health care costs.
We are just completing a study funded by American’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) and Blue Cross Blue Shield Association (BCBSA) that uses new methods and data to explore claims about the value of Medicare Advantage (MA) compared to traditional Medicare Fee-for-Service (FFS). Our findings suggest that there is serious reason to question previous reports, including MedPAC findings.
Additionally, our research below demonstrates that patients with hepatocellular cancer (liver cancer) and patients with Advanced Parkinson’s Disease are impacted by SDOH resulting in higher use of emergency room care and lower access to newer device aided treatments. This research can drive changes designed to remove those barriers to improve health and reduce costs overall.
What research trends have you observed to be currently rising in interest related to SDoH, accessibility, health disparities, and more?
More of the newer studies we’re doing at Inovalon with life science companies and health plans are opting to incorporate SDOH data into the analysis, demonstrating the industry is recognizing the importance of these factors to overall health, quality, and cost effectiveness.
The focus of SDOH research is also shifting from not only understanding the human implications of health disparities, but also to better understanding the cost/benefit implications of SDOH. This shift in focus may lead to putting in place more incentives to address SDOH barriers, which can drive actual change. If providers don’t have an incentive, these issues may go by the wayside as traditional patient issues are addressed. Putting some real skin in the game can drive real change.
Is there anything else you’d like to highlight for our audience?
We are currently exploring a source of SDOH data at the person-level which will provide even stronger evidence of the impact of SDOH on health care use, cost, and quality outcomes. This data can be linked to health plan members to solve one of the biggest barriers to addressing SDOH, and that is knowing which members have which social risk factors that need to be addressed with nonmedical benefits or other interventions. This could be a game-changer as health plans are continuously trying to collect this data, and it is a losing battle—census data is not readily available at the person level and represents such large geographic areas that it is of little use. Trying to collect through member surveys or at office visits is never complete or timely.
References
- Jimenez-Shahed J, Malaty IA, Soileau M, et al. Association of patient characteristics, social drivers of health, and geographic location on access to device-aided therapies among Medicare beneficiaries with advanced Parkinson's disease. Parkinsonism Relat Disord. 2025 Feb 6;133:107322. doi:10.1016/j.parkreldis.2025.107322
- Singal A, Kilgore K, Shvets E, et al. Impact of social determinants of health on hepatocellular carcinoma surveillance, treatment, and health care costs. Hepatol Commun. 2024;8(11):e0517. doi:10.1097/HC9.0000000000000517
- Lin D, Tan A, Teigland C, Hernandez S, Kim S, Kilgore K. Race/ethnicity and socioeconomic position on emergency department utilization in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma. Future Oncol. 2024;20(24):1765-1777. doi:10.2217/fon-2023-0412
