Design and Development of a Tablet-Based Social Determinants of Health Screening Tool for Community Settings

Abstract

Background: Social determinants of health (SDOH), such as food insecurity, housing instability, transportation barriers, and unemployment, strongly influence health outcomes. While SDOH screening is increasingly common in clinical settings, less is known about digital SDOH screening in community settings. Objective: This developmental study presents the design and development of a tablet-based SDOH screening and referral tool for non-clinical settings to strengthen identification of unmet social needs among underserved communities in Chicago. Methods: Rush University Medical Center and Stanford Mussallem Center for Biodesign developed a tablet-based survey app using the Stanford Spezi Framework, integrating SDOH screening among five domains: food, housing, transportation, utilities, and employment. Designed for trained healthcare staff and community workers in non-clinical neighborhood locations, responses are securely sent to a Rush cloud environment, where social needs are routed to referral pathways, including social worker review and community resources. Participants can remain anonymous or provide identifying information for follow-up. Results: The tablet-based application was successfully developed, integrating key SDOH domains into a seven-item screening tool. Backend infrastructure was configured to securely transmit survey responses to Rush's cloud environment, and referral routing directs flagged responses to a social worker dashboard. Conclusion: This developmental study presents a tablet-based SDOH screening tool designed for community deployment. The tool supports secure data transmission, anonymous participation, and real-time referral routing. Future research should assess usability, screening rates, resource connection, and long-term outcomes among underserved communities in Chicago.