Brad Rose has spent nearly two decades in the healthcare industry at organizations including The Advisory Board, Optum, and the Health Management Academy, and recently joined Socially Determined as Chief Growth Officer. We sat down with Brad to learn a little more about him and his new role.
What brought you to Socially Determined?
Two major things brought me to Socially Determined. First, is its extremely strong mission. The idea of working with people who are committed to serving clients, passionate about improving health outcomes, and steadfast in their efforts to enhance the lives of members, patients, employees, or citizens resonates deeply with me.
Secondly, not only am I blown away by the company’s mission, but also its ability to execute on it with innovative technology and an approach that’s never been done before. The ability to identify and quantify risk – down to 200 meters of resolution across different risk domains – is incredibly powerful. Clients can also get precise insights into what’s driving social risk for each person within their population. It’s humbling to work with people who not only had the vision to see this was needed in the market, but also applied their advanced skillsets to invent the science behind it to effectively address social risk.
What makes you most excited about your new role?
That's a tough question because I enjoy so much about our work. However, the most exciting aspect for me is the opportunity to empower organizations seeking to better the lives of the people they serve while simultaneously improving their business performance. Socially Determined is spearheading the work the healthcare industry has needed for a long time — helping to align dollars to resources that positively affect health and wellbeing and quantifying that impact. No one else is doing this in a measurable and repeatable way yet. The chance to do well by doing good is what most excites me about coming onboard at Socially Determined.
What do you expect your biggest challenges to be?
Our field has received increased attention lately, yet the idea of applying Social Risk Intelligence™ to improve SDOH interventions is quite new. Introducing the market to the power of these insights is both a privilege and a challenge. It often requires some education on not only what Social Risk Intelligence is but why it matters and what to do about it. There are several companies touting solutions that solve for SDOH, but its important to understand the level of expertise that is needed to effectively address social risk and ensure the offering provides it. While screening patients and referring them is necessary, effective SDOH solutions provide insights far beyond that to make an impact at scale.
The key for us is to continue to clearly articulate how we’re the differentiated leader in providing insightful analysis to our clients across the different social risk domains. Our methodology includes a four-pronged approach that stems from unmatched social risk insights that becomes the foundation that guides our client’s journey. Whether that means augmenting existing intervention programs or creating new ones, we help them identify high concentrations of risk and quantify the opportunities that will have the biggest impact on their communities. This allows clients to take strategic action and drive sustainable, measurable intervention programs for better health outcomes and business performance at scale.
Where are Socially Determined’s biggest opportunities for growth?
Right now, we are seeing more and more companies taking action to address social risk in their own way. This presents many opportunities for Socially Determined to help payers, providers, life science companies, and employers integrate SDOH into their programs. With that said, the largest near-term opportunities exist with those organizations already performing interventions related to housing, transportation, food insecurity, health literacy and economic strain. Given our expertise in this space, we can clearly define what’s working and what’s not within existing programs and provide strategic recommendations to help refine them for maximum results.
How do you see the focus on SDOH evolving in 2, 3, or even 5 years from now?
I see the focus in this area evolving in two ways. First, there is a shift in play now from definition to action. As a society, we are beginning to recognize that these social risk categories are a central component of health and that taking action is not only helpful, but critical. And second, we are moving towards a system where the dollars are beginning to flow to the resources and programs addressing SDOH. Several states are already experimenting with reimbursement tied to social risk intervention. Combining the investment focus with the immediacy of ROI in addressing each of these social risk categories will create a more refined lens on SDOH over time.
The science behind valuing these factors is becoming readily available because of companies like Socially Determined and over time addressing social risk will become regular practice for the industry. This idea of building something that most of the market hasn’t appreciated yet but will one day be a huge part of the healthcare system is very exciting.
On a personal level, tell us a bit about yourself and your passions outside of work.
Thanks for asking! I live in Bethesda, MD with my wife and three very active kids who are 10, 8, and 6. For those of you with children, I think you can imagine what my life is like outside of work. Fun, but quite busy. Learning tongue twisters with the kids has been a recent fascination in our house. More personally, I have played tennis my whole life but have fallen in love with golf in recent years. Now I just need to find more time in any given day to get out there.
Click here for more information on Socially Determined or to get a demo of our Social Risk Intelligence platform, Socialscape today.