2 min

Tags in this article

, ,

Salesforce has updated its Health Cloud to include other health factors. These so-called social determinants can now be introduced by medical professionals, after which the information can be used to determine how to deal with patients. That’s what ZDNet reports.

Social determinants are factors that can have an impact on health. This concerns, for example, access to transport or the safety of a neighbourhood. “The vanguard of healthcare is moving away from the hospital and into all other places – the home, the workplace and the lifestyle,” says Dr. Joshua Newman, chief medical officer at Salesforce. “We need the tools we have in other industries to reach us in ways that differ per person.”

Applications

For example, a physician wants to use the new feature in the Health Cloud to find out whether patients have access to the transport required to visit for new appointments. The function can help medical providers to collect this information and then take action based on it. In this situation, for example, they can use the Salesforce Cloud to connect patients to a transport service.

The information has to be entered manually. In addition, users can import data from other sources. Ultimately, it must also be possible to import data from complex analytics and AI. “I can see a future in which this is happening, because a lot of the data is there, whether you are looking at postcodes or at what people are coming,” says Newman. “The data for finding out this kind of thing is there.”

Hospitals and similar organisations can use social determinants data to provide personal, cost-effective care. For example, they can use information about a patient’s level of education to determine whether they need home care after a medical procedure, or whether reminders via a mobile app are sufficient.

Field Service Lightning

Salesforce also integrates the Health Cloud with Field Service Lightning, a product to coordinate employees in the field. This can be useful for large organisations that increasingly coordinate the care of patients in their homes.

Finally, there is an integration with the Marketing Cloud, which allows hospitals and other healthcare organizations to place patients in different “journeys”. For example, if a provider wants to notify certain patients of a skin care clinic, they can draw up a list of patients in the Health Cloud and use the Marketing Cloud to send them an e-mail or to reach them via social media.

This news article was automatically translated from Dutch to give Techzine.eu a head start. All news articles after September 1, 2019 are written in native English and NOT translated. All our background stories are written in native English as well. For more information read our launch article.