Community health workers (CHWs) are health care system force multipliers who can improve health outcomes as well as reduce costs. Many come from the populations they serve and can bridge gaps between health professionals and their patients’ communities, including for example, by connecting families to prevention and other resources that reduce expensive emergency care.

The Better Care Playbook spoke with Aditi Vasan, MD, MSHP, a health services researcher at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine. She is a co-author of Community Health Worker Integration with and Effectiveness in Health Care and Public Health in the United States, a systematic review published in Annual Review of Public Health. The systematic review examines evidence on the effectiveness of CHW interventions across dozens of recent randomized control trials and studies. Drawing on her research, the conversation with Dr. Vasan delves into how CHWs can be helpful to patients with complex health and social needs.