There is overwhelming evidence to suggest that social determinants of health (SDoH) impact the onset and progression of health conditions, the care that patients receive, their access to testing and treatment, and health outcomes. The pharmaceutical industry has a critical role to play in ensuring underserved communities and vulnerable patients receive equal access to care and treatment through better disease education, greater clinical trial diversity, innovative assistance programs, and new policies. In the September 2021 issue of PM360, Jean Drouin, MD, CEO, Clarify Health, shared innovative ways that pharma’s addressing health inequities with SDoH insights.

This year, we released new applications of our anonymized patient-level SDoH insights to provide life sciences companies with a window into how medical care and social and behavioral determinants of health interconnect to influence each patient’s journey. With real-world evidence (RWE) software products, Clarify Growth and Clarify Portfolio, pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies gain the unprecedented ability to explore and understand how patients’ journeys, treatment decisions, and outcomes are impacted by non-medical factors such as race, income, transportation access, housing stability, education level, health literacy, and propensity to exercise. Our RWE products for life sciences companies help evaluate health disparities, such as discrepancies between patients who are diagnosed and those who are treated based on race and socioeconomic status, to ensure eligible patients have equal access to treatment.