A prominent healthcare advocacy toolkit designed to help clinics and hospital systems address the foundational, non-medical aspects of patient well-being has earned formal recognition in two major national and regional resource databases.
The Salud America! Action Pack, titled “How to Start Screening for the Non-Medical Drivers of Health (NMDoH),” has been selected for inclusion by the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and Rice University. The resource is now featured in UCSF’s national database, the Social Interventions Research & Evaluation Network (SIREN), as well as Rice University’s Texas-focused platform, Evidence-to-Practice for Non-Medical Drivers of Health (E2 Practice NMDOH).
Developed by researchers at UT Health San Antonio, the action pack provides healthcare professionals, clinical administrators, and hospital networks with practical instruments to launch or refine screening protocols within their daily operations. By integrating these assessments into routine patient encounters, healthcare systems can better identify and respond to the social and environmental factors that profoundly influence overall health outcomes.
The toolkit was created under the leadership of Dr. Amelie G. Ramirez, director of the Salud America! national health communication program, the Institute for Health Promotion Research at UT Health San Antonio, and the community outreach and engagement team at the Mays Cancer Center. According to Ramirez, the systematic evaluation of non-medical drivers allows medical providers to develop a more holistic understanding of the populations they serve, directly connecting vulnerable individuals to vital community support systems while shedding light on the root causes of chronic health disparities.
Why Do We Need Screening for the Non-Medical Drivers of Health?
For decades, traditional medical care has focused heavily on physiological diagnosis and pharmaceutical or surgical interventions. However, public health experts increasingly recognize that clinical care alone accounts for only a fraction of a person’s overall health and longevity. The conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work, and age—often referred to as non-medical drivers of health or social determinants of health—play an overwhelming role in shaping medical well-being.
To truly improve patient outcomes and strengthen community health, healthcare organizations must actively confront challenges related to housing stability, reliable transportation, and consistent access to nutritious food. When patients struggle to secure basic daily necessities, managing chronic conditions like diabetes, hypertension, or asthma becomes remarkably difficult, frequently leading to preventable emergency room visits and hospital readmissions.
To bridge this gap, healthcare facilities are increasingly turning to structured NMDoH screening protocols. These initiatives typically involve standardized questionnaires administered during routine medical appointments. The assessments are specifically designed to uncover hidden vulnerabilities such as financial hardship, housing insecurity, food scarcity, and safety concerns. Once these needs are identified during a clinical encounter, care teams can directly connect patients to specialized social services and community-based resources capable of offering long-term assistance.
Implementing these screening measures inside hospitals, community health centers, and private clinics allows institutions to address health-related social needs at the individual level while simultaneously capturing broader demographic data to inform public health strategies. Pioneering institutions across the United States—including major pediatric centers, federally qualified health centers, and community health networks—have already demonstrated the feasibility and profound clinical value of integrating social needs assessments into pediatric and adult medicine.
How Does This Action Pack Help You Start Screening for Non-Medical Drivers of Health in Healthcare?
Translating high-level health equity concepts into daily clinical workflows can often present logistical and operational challenges for busy medical staff. The Salud America! Action Pack was specifically engineered to simplify this transition, offering practical assets that healthcare teams can readily adapt to their specific practice environments.
The comprehensive toolkit includes a diverse array of resources, ranging from a model email designed to start internal conversations among leadership and staff, to an informative fact sheet and a detailed developmental checklist for building a sustainable screening infrastructure. Furthermore, the action pack features an exhaustive review guide analyzing existing screening instruments, enabling administrators to select the framework that best aligns with their patient population and institutional capacity.
Created through a collaborative effort between the Salud America! program and the ACS Avanzando Salud Center at the Institute for Health Promotion Research within UT Health San Antonio, the initiative emphasizes cross-disciplinary participation. The materials are designed to empower both clinical and non-clinical personnel to recognize immediate social vulnerabilities that exist beyond the physical walls of the doctor’s office.
To further support implementation, participating clinics and healthcare systems can access specialized technical assistance through designated program coaches. These professionals are available to help customize the provided materials, navigate operational hurdles, and answer implementation questions tailored to unique clinical settings. By offering these structured pathways, the initiative aims to institutionalize the assessment of non-medical drivers as a standard component of comprehensive, patient-centered healthcare delivery across the region and the nation.
