Healogics Wound Science Initiative Addresses Social Determinants of Health

Healogics®, the nation’s largest provider of advanced chronic wound care services, today announced their research series addressing the social determinants of health. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines social determinants of health as the conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work and age, that shape health. These factors include characteristics such as socioeconomic status, education, neighborhood and physical environment, employment and social support networks. Surprisingly, these social and environmental conditions account for 80 percent of health outcomes while only 20 percent are the result of care delivery. “Over the next year, we will release a series of findings based on surveys of clinicians, interviews with patients and secondary data analysis,” said Hanna Gordon, PhD, Healogics Executive Director, Research and Informatics. “Our goal is to ensure that all patients can access high quality care and heal their chronic ulcers. We will begin our series with an introduction to the social determinants and how they impact health outcomes, followed by the findings of a survey on clinician perspectives on social barriers to care, and original research on the sociogeographic patterning of chronic wounds.”