Best Practices to Collect Vulnerable Data

In order to collect some of these, especially those related to social determinants, sexual orientation, gender identity, preferred pronouns, and preferred name, these are things that we would love for the patient to self-disclose. Because again, I think, one, we’re going to have the accuracy there. And then two, like we said, we’re going to take some of that off of the staff because not only is it a staff burden, but it’s also requiring the staff to ask these questions to patients in a way that either they don’t feel comfortable doing, or they’re asking them out loud in the waiting room where every other patient can hear these questions being asked of another patient.

So, I think absolutely, for me—and I think for you too—these are ways that we can again leverage technology. QliqSOFT being one of them, but there are other ways to collect this information from a technological perspective that really gains value in two ways. It gives the patient the ability to self-disclose in a private area, whether it’s from their home or another private environment.

This could even be done as part of a pre-visit preparation process—completed from home, from the waiting room, but not in a public setting.

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