The Gravity Project

Join the Gravity Project for Multi-Domain Consensus Voting Thursday, February 4th

Join the Gravity Project as we conduct Multi-Domain consensus voting during the community meeting on February 4th, 2021. 

• Voting will take place via poll during the community meeting. View Gravity’s consensus process here.

Updated Inadequate Housing, Transportation Insecurity, and Financial Strain Master Lists 

The Inadequate Housing domain master list was updated Wednesday, January 13th, 2021. View the Inadequate Housing domain master list here. The Transportation Insecurity domain master list was updated Monday, January 11, 2021. View the Transportation Insecurity domain master list here. The Financial Strain master list was updated Monday, January 11, 2021. View the Financial master list here.

Gravity Project’s Submission to USCDI: A New SDOH Class!

• The Gravity Project formally submitted our collaborative work as a new SDOH data class for ONC’s USCDI v2 on October 23rd, 2020. Please contact mark.savage@ucsf.edu for further information on the status of the submission.

ICD-10-CM Submission Posted 

The Gravity Project has submitted the Multi-DOmain ICD-10-CM concepts on Friday, December 4th, 2020. The ICD-10-CM submission was posted on Monday, December 7th, 2020. View Gravity's ICD-10CM submission incorporating Gravity Project's consensus recommendations here. 

• The next step for the submission is review at the March 9-10 ICD-10-CM Coordination and Maintenance Committee Meeting.
• Should any member wish to send a letter of support, please send these directly to the committee at E-mail: nchsicd10cm@cdc.gov
• Aim to send prior to January 30th, 2021 to help make the case for review

CMS NPRM Request for Information on Social Risk Data Standards

• On December 18, CMS published a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) that included a “Request for Information: Accelerating the Adoption of Standards Related to Social Risk Data.” Read the Gravity Project Response letter here

• Other organizations—31 letters at last count—also explicitly mentioned and supported the Gravity Project’s work!

Gravity Food Insecurity & Housing Instability Data Set Press Release

The Gravity Food Insecurity & Housing Instability Press Release is now LIVE. Please help us share this PR far and wide: https://www.hl7.org/documentcenter/public/pressreleases/HL7_PRESS_20201211.pdf

SIREN Coffee & Science 

Join SIREN Coffee & Science, a new virtual conversation series that SIREN is launching to provide a forum for experts to discuss hot topics in health and social care integration. The series of 30-minute live events will start January 22nd and run through June. The events will also be disseminated on SIREN’s new podcast channel, where an introductory episode is already available!

ONC Advancing SDOH Health IT Enabled Tools and Data Interoperability

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology has launched a project that focuses on emerging tools for advancing the use of SDOH data in clinical community settings. Data tagging can help enable the movement of sensitive SDOH data. eCDS can enable the integration of SDOH decision-making data into clinical workflows, as supported by specialty practice guidelines, making it more likely that SDOH information will be utilized as a part of care delivery. Learn more about the project here. 

Terminology Process Orientation

The Gravity Project has new educational pieces available in the “Educational and Instructional Materials” section of the confluence! Please check out the new terminology orientation slides and a video describing our adjudication process. 

COVID-19 and SDOH

Please visit and contribute to the Gravity Project SDOH COVID-19 Response page, where you'll find a blog and other resources.  Anyone can view the blog, but a Confluence login is required for those who wish to post blog content.  Click here for instructions on how to request a Confluence login.  Email webmaster@hl7.org for login and technical support. 

The Gravity Project is now official on social media! We invite you to follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter. We will be using the social media platforms for relevant project and SDOH data integration related communications. Help us spread the word!

The Social Interventions Research and Evaluation Network (SIREN), with funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and in partnership with EMI Advisors, LLC, launched the Gravity Project in May 2019. The Gravity Project convenes stakeholders across the country through an open and transparent collaborative process where they develop and test consensus-based standards to facilitate SDOH data capture and exchange across a variety of systems and settings of care and social services. 

The Gravity Project seeks to identify data elements and associated value sets to represent SDOH information documented in electronic health records (EHRs) across four clinical activities: screening, diagnosis, goal setting, and intervention activities. The Project deliverables are:

• Develop use cases that guide the development of standards to support SDOH data capture and exchange; 
• Identify common data elements and their associated value sets to support the use cases;
• Develop a consensus-based set of recommendations on how best to capture and group these data elements for interoperable electronic exchange and aggregation;
• Collaborate with coding and terminology organizations to address coding gaps identified and apply for new codes;
• Develop, test, and ballot HL7 FHIR Implementation Guide(s) based on the defined use cases and coded data sets; and 
• Develop Reference Implementation(s) to support real-world pilots and implementations.

Project objectives will be accomplished through bi-weekly virtual meetings and collaborative project product development through the HL7 project confluence page.

CLICK HERE FOR A FULL MEETING SCHEDULE
Click here for project documentation and deliverables.

The success of the Gravity Project depends on the contribution of volunteers who are eager to make rapid progress on the standardization of social determinants of health data.  We need experts to contribute to and validate definitions for SDH related data elements and value sets. Participants are asked to join the project at any time either as a Committed Member or Other Interested Party as part of the HL7 Consensus Process.  To join the project, sign up here.  

• To check your project membership status, click here.  If you wish to change your membership from Other Interested Party to Committed Member, please send an email request to GravityProject@emiadvisors.net .
• NOTE:  Both member types can submit comments on project documentation.  However, only Committed Members may vote on final documentation.  If you would like to have voting rights, please change your membership status or join the project as a Committed Member.