Sunday, May 11, 2025
5/11/2025
Addressing Unmet Social Needs among Hospitalized Children - PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT Even before COVID-19, nearly 1.6 million US children experienced homelessness1 and 14% lived in food insecure households.2 Strong associations between children’s health and these unmet social needs3-9 has led many organizations to endorse screening patients for social risks in clinical settings and connecting them to community resources.10-16 Pediatric clinic-to-community linking interventions have shown beneficial health effects in non-hospital settings.17,18 However, there is little evidence about how unmet social needs affect hospitalized children and how to effectively address these needs during inpatient clinical care. Dr. Pantell’s long-term goal is to become an independent investigator leading the development, testing, and implementation of interventions to address unmet social needs in clinical settings to improve patient and population health. His overall objective is to identify which unmet social needs are most strongly associated with unplanned health care utilization among hospitalized children, and then conduct a pilot trial to determine the feasibility and acceptability of implementing a caregiver- and care team member-informed protocol for screening for and addressing these needs in the pediatric inpatient setting. The central hypothesis of his work is that providing resources to address social needs during children’s hospitalizations will increase linkages to social resources, improve health, and reduce unplanned health care utilization. The rationale is that understanding how to successfully implement social care protocols will be crucial to scaling the integration of evidence-based social interventions into clinical settings. To pursue his objective, Dr. Pantell will pursue these specific aims: 1) Use electronic health records (EHRs) to examine associations between unmet social needs and unplanned health care utilization among hospitalized pediatric patients; 2) Use qualitative methods to explore caregiver and care team member perspectives on social needs screening to inform the development of effective inpatient social needs screening strategies and interventions; 3) Conduct a pilot trial to determine the feasibility and acceptability of implementing an inpatient social needs screening and intervention protocol in a tertiary pediatric hospital setting. The proposed work is innovative in its use of a novel method (natural language processing – a text-mining tool) to address an understudied population (hospitalized children) and advance an underdeveloped area for intervention (addressing social needs). It is significant as it will help advance understanding of 1) which unmet social needs are most strongly related to health outcomes among children; and 2) how to effectively implement protocols in the inpatient setting to address these social needs in order to improve health among children and low-income families, AHRQ priority populations. To successfully pursue his proposed specific aims, Dr. Pantell will receive training in natural language processing, qualitative research, and the conduct of clinical trials through didactic courses and experiential studies at the University of California, San Francisco, where he is an Assistant Professor. He will also be guided by a team of mentors and advisors whose expertise includes EHR research, natural language processing, qualitative methods, social intervention implementation, and the conduct of clinical trials.
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).