Under the Same Sky with Mark Savage, JD
For this episode of Under the Same Sky, Abner Mason met with Mark Savage, JD, managing director of digital health strategy and policy at Savage & Savage LLC, to discuss his experiences in developing and leveraging electronic health information technology, and how its implementation will impact health equity and community populations. View the recording.
Abner started the discussion by seeking insights into what led Mark to embark on this journey. Mark first attended law school where studying constitutional law transformed his perspective and career path. He then began his career as a civil rights litigator, addressing various issues of discrimination and poverty through impact litigation and multicultural coalition building. Through numerous contributions, research, and learning experiences, Mark discovered his true passion, which led him to work on several projects aimed at advancing health equity.
Since 2010, Mark has focused on electronic health information exchange because it represents a systemic barrier for communities that can also serve as a systematic opportunity. He utilized the High Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act as a catalyst for change in California through a program aimed at transitioning healthcare documentation from paper to electronic records. In Washington, he worked on policy and regulations for the National Partnership for Women and Families, enabling him to create impact across all 50 states. He now consults and volunteers in areas of passion involving digital health, health equity, and healthcare transformation.
More recently, Mark was the social determinants of health (SDOH) policy advisor for the Gravity Project, where he developed consensus-based standards for integrating, exchanging, and utilizing SDOH data. At the Gravity Project, he tried to address concerns such as food insecurity, housing insecurity, transportation insecurity, and other factors, while collaborating with subject matter experts to formulate relevant research questions and methodologies that facilitated evidence-based research through community collaboration. Between 2500-3000 unique participants nationwide engaged in calls to provide feedback on their processes and questions, followed by a voting process to develop consensus-based data standards for enhancing the use and sharing of SDOH information. They vetted and accepted 19 different domains for use across the United States. To facilitate data exchange and usage, they established a technology workstream with a multi-domain implementation guide that enhanced the efficiency of Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) for various agencies nationwide. This community-driven consensus work enabled the implementation of these standards.
“The Gravity Project is grounded in the fact that 80% of a person’s health status is explained by social, economic, environmental, cultural factors outside the clinical setting.””
Mark believes there is a significant opportunity to break down the silos between social care and clinical care. He emphasized the importance of approaching integration differently while also incorporating health equity perspectives from individuals and communities. Through his experiences, Mark has proved that involving the community while using data to bridge the clinical and social aspects of healthcare is key to advancing health equity.
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