Social determinants of health (SDOH) refer to a wide variety of nonmedical factors that can influence an individual’s health. It looks at environments where people are born, live, work, play, and age.
This has a bigger impact on our wellbeing than we think: according to a study, ninety percent of the determinants of our health are derived from our lifetime social and physical environment, not from the provision of healthcare. With so much on the line, TARTLE is working with the world’s foremost researchers and doctors on SDOH to design data packets as a part of its advocacy for public health under the Big 7 initiative.
In the podcast, Alex and Jason discuss how medical research is mostly reactive. It deals with the disease only after it has affected a person. This backtracking, or the habit of “putting out fires,” has a negative effect on our development and gives diseases a head start on their capacity to disrupt lives.
So, how can we start building a disease-free society? While it may not be a possibility in our lifetime, the potential to develop the foundations for it is already present. With SDOH data packets, we can build our knowledge of how people are infected by the disease from the ground up.
This means that within a country, we can take a closer look at how disease affects rural versus urban communities in different ways. Local policymakers can start formulating stronger health legislation based on more solid data. On a global scale, we can start answering pressing questions we have had on how different cultures and locations impact the general health of entire communities.
For example, the country of Bhutan is one of the poorest countries in the world—but why are they one of the happiest as well, with higher rates of longevity? What more can we uncover about how social determinants influence quality of life from one continent to another? With SDOH data packets, the possibilities are endless.
It is difficult to estimate how one’s body would react to the COVID-19 vaccine. As a result, misinformation and fake news have made it doubly challenging for health authorities to convince everyone to take the shot. However, SDOH packets may have the answer to making these injections easier to understand and access.
For example, the relevant health authorities could issue surveys for individuals who have taken the vaccine to find out who they were feeling after their first and second shot. They can then cross-reference these answers to the SDOH packets of each person, looking for potential triggers or commonalities that lead to an increased risk of complications.
Without a doubt, getting vaccinated is our best shot at beating the COVID-19 pandemic. There have been plenty of efforts to incentivize vaccinations around the world: some governments offer cash payouts, discounts, and other perks. However, the biggest incentive that people will want to follow—particularly the misinformed, who are major victims in this pandemic—is certainty that the vaccine can do good. This can be achieved through SDOH data packets, which can be used to understand how the vaccine would affect different body types and health profiles.
It is important for authorities to be proactive about information dissemination in a world where black propaganda spreads just as fast. When people are empowered with the knowledge they need to make an informed medical decision, we have a better opportunity at decreasing the loss of human life and improving the quality of life overall.
Some people are quick to shoot down the idea of SDOH data packets and the Marketplace. In the podcast, Alex briefly discusses TARTLE’s experience with trolls on social media platforms.
Most of the time, poor communication and prejudice is caused by a lack of understanding. In this scenario, netizens hiding behind the veil of anonymity to badmouth the Marketplace without even giving it a chance to develop the framework and reach more people do not realize the negative impact that they have on the community—not just on themselves.
“What you're saying is actually complete nonsense. If you are bad mouthing something that is an opportunity to truly heal others, to give them the aid, to understand other people, you're limiting your own evolution,” Alex explained.
Now more than ever, it is imperative that we come together as a community and lift others up. Creating data packets that contain an individual’s social determinants of health could make an impact on the way entire communities are being treated. When we can formulate better health policies as a result of more informed choices, our actions have a spillover effect on future generations, quality of life, and economic stability.
The TARTLE marketplace is the only platform in the world that gives people the opportunity to connect with organizations in a safe and secure manner, regardless of where they are located or who they are aligned to. It’s a place that empowers people on the ground to take control and be responsible for their own data in a world where we are so used to just giving it away to other companies.
One byproduct of wielding more power over our data is an increased knowledge of the communities that we affect, the values that we hold dear, and the causes we want to support. Regardless of whether you are an individual or an entity, TARTLE aims to foster an increased sense of awareness for the plight of others by creating connections where possible.
What’s your data worth? Sign up for the TARTLE Marketplace through this link here.
Social determinants of health (SDOH) refer to a wide variety of nonmedical factors that can influence an individual’s health. It looks at environments where people are born, live, work, play, and age.
Alexander McCaig (00:07):
If you hear the didgeridoo, it is calling you to listen, and thank you all who are here on the live stream right now. Joining us. Appreciate the comments. Appreciate the attention. We appreciate the ears. We have a data packet coming out rather soon. Social determinants of health. We have specifically worked with the world's foremost researchers and doctors on social determinants of health to get this thing designed. It is so fundamentally important for all of us as a priority data packet on the marketplace to fill out social determinant of health data packet. It's going to go under the health data category, and you'll see it. It'll say SDOH. And in doing so is going to afford great understanding towards number five on our big seven for public health and researchers.
Alexander McCaig (00:59):
If you're looking to be like, well, what's the first thing I'm going to fill out here that's going to give me some money also. Everybody wants to find out SDOH. There are so many people all over the world, so I would encourage individuals to fill out the social determinants of health packet. What's so interesting about social determinants of health? If we look at medical research right now, we deal with disease after the fact, after the person's become diseased. And then we're like, "Oh." Then we go back and look at the cause. We're always trying to put out fires. Health has seemed for so long to be a lagging indicator, but now we have the opportunity as a collective, all of us, to come together and share leading indicators about what's causing our health to have specific outcomes, to keep us healthy, to keep us out of a disease state. We need to be disease-free.
Alexander McCaig (01:49):
Social determinants of of health... It's a simple data pack. It'll take a little bit of time, but what it does is it goes over many aspects of your life, physically, mentally, and emotionally. And that allows that to be captured in a standardized format. So researchers can look at it and be like interesting to see what's going on in Sudan, as opposed to what's happening in Mongolia. Or Kazakhstan comparatively to Australia. Or all of Europe comparative to South America. This is why the social determinant health is so important, because it gives us these leading indicators, a foundational baseline, consistently for us to really study. And never ever in history has it been possible to study large swaths of communities across every country on planet earth to ask them about their social determinants of health. Why is it that some poorer countries actually have people that are happier and live longer as opposed to more developed ones?
Jason Rigby (02:49):
Yes.
Alexander McCaig (02:49):
These are very interesting questions. We have a good community of people in the country of Bhutan, which is one of the happiest countries in the world, but also one the poorest. Why is that? Why are they living longer? Why are they so healthy? Social determinants of health helps us understand that. It helps hospitals, researchers, pharmaceutical, governments, everybody. These big resource holders come together and say we want to pay you to truly understand. They want to understand human life and social determinants of health can now be understood borderlessly with minimal effort. And anybody, regardless of the age, can come in here, and interact on Tartle to fill that data packet out, and help us evolve our understanding of what keeps us healthy, what keeps us happy, and what brings us together.
Jason Rigby (03:40):
Whenever you look at the wording alone, sometimes people can look at it, social determinants of health. Why is that so important? "Okay, I can follow the packet. I'm going to get paid." But it's more than that. When you're filling out this packet, you're giving individual information, that's truthful. Hopefully you're being truthful in it. Individual information that's truthful. And then we can turn around and look at demographics and see something that... Maybe it's the world health organization or whatever it may be. And see if there's a common denominator.
Jason Rigby (04:13):
In this, we could actually solve an issue. For instance, Tartle... It would have been so simple for Pfizer or Johnson & Johnson, or somebody to... After somebody's first shot, second shot go directly to the source and say, "Hey, how are you feeling? What was going on?" They could take the survey.... Pay people for the survey, and then they would know exactly the outcome of that shot. Like for you, you just had your first one, and you felt sick on the first one. I was totally fine on the first one. I went to the gym and everything else. The second one knocked me out for a couple of days.
Alexander McCaig (04:43):
Well, you and I have to have two totally different diets.
Jason Rigby (04:44):
Yes.
Alexander McCaig (04:45):
Two totally different life habits.
Jason Rigby (04:46):
Yes.
Alexander McCaig (04:47):
Two totally different sets of genetics.
Jason Rigby (04:48):
Yes.
Alexander McCaig (04:49):
These are the things we need to look at.
Jason Rigby (04:52):
And understand. Why is public health so important for the globe?
Alexander McCaig (04:56):
Well, we didn't like COVID did we?
Jason Rigby (04:58):
No.
Alexander McCaig (04:59):
We didn't like that pandemic. That didn't work out for anyone. So if we can keep the world healthy, it helps decrease the loss of human life. Does that not seem important? Do you not want your loved ones to live longer? Your children to live longer? Yourself to live longer? Do you not want that better understanding? Do you not want that spread of disease, and that chaos that has these ripple effects that torment our communities and our economies and our cultures? No, we don't want that. So if we can understand these things ahead of time, before they get out of hand, we can get ahead of the curve. We can really help ourselves out. We can give ourselves firm footing to truly evolve off of. But right now, so much of the world is lacking that information that is so direly needed in this net. Now Tartle has that avenue. It has that output. It has that opportunity available for all of us to come together on something so impactful. So beneficial. So needed for all of us to fill this out.
Jason Rigby (05:59):
Yeah, I think it's as important, especially when you look at developing countries to be able to come in... Like an organization to be able to come in and ask simple questions. Like in the sense of, does your stomach hurt three times a day?
Alexander McCaig (06:12):
Sure.
Jason Rigby (06:13):
I mean little things like that... And I'm just using that as an example, but so much aid is given to countries as shotgunning it.
Alexander McCaig (06:23):
Yeah. They really don't know.
Jason Rigby (06:24):
They're just hoping like, okay, we've got the supply of medicine. Let's take that and see how much good we can do with this. But they may be getting diseases from a parasite that may be in the stomach. You know what I mean? And, there may be a simple drug... If we're finding out that 90% of people are having stomach aches in Sudan let's say for instance, okay, we have a problem.
Alexander McCaig (06:48):
Yeah.
Jason Rigby (06:49):
We went directly to the source. We've asked these people and they're saying, Yes. 90% of the time I've got a stomach ache. Okay. That's not normal.
Alexander McCaig (06:59):
No, it's not normal.
Jason Rigby (06:59):
That's inflammation. How is that happening? What's going on. There's a high percentage of people that live in Sudan that are having a stomach ache. We need to address that.
Alexander McCaig (07:08):
Yeah. And we need to aid that disease that the currently feeling.
Jason Rigby (07:12):
So we have efficiency in aid.
Alexander McCaig (07:14):
Yeah. It's funny, we talk about this, and it's fantastic. We've got trolls that come on YouTube.
Jason Rigby (07:20):
Right.
Alexander McCaig (07:21):
And they ask a question, or they don't. They just make a statement. They say, Tartle's a waste of time. It's interesting. Do you not value your time as a human being? Do you not value your life? Do you not value others? What you're saying is actually complete nonsense. If you are bad mouthing something that is an opportunity to truly heal others, to give them the aid, to understand other people, you're limiting your own evolution.
Jason Rigby (07:47):
Right.
Alexander McCaig (07:48):
That's not good for you. Come together as a community, come together in understanding, try and give a compliment rather than bring those down. Because that would also be a very interesting thing about your mental state, this individual here, on the social determinants of health. I'd be interested to buy that data, packet off of you and study how you think, because I do find it an anomaly, but we're all individuals. We're all different. We all learn at different states. Whether you're deceased in your mind, or you're in Sudan, and your stomach is swelling, and you're uncomfortable. All of these things require specific types of aid. They require specific types of understanding. And this is what we need to focus on. Social determinants of health will get us there. Asking questions. Do you walk barefoot? Will get us there. Do you brush your teeth? That helps us understand each other. And we build those bridges. We decrease this lack of understanding. We decrease hate. We shine truth to what needs that truth.
Jason Rigby (08:45):
Yeah. Last question. Then we'll close. I want to approach it from the other side. If I'm an organization, and I want to purchase social determinants of health from Tartle, as a buyer of that data, why is it so important for me to seek out Tartle's marketplace?
Alexander McCaig (09:02):
You seek out Tartle's marketplace, because we're the only one in the world that affords you the opportunity to meet people like these individuals here on the live stream. Regardless of the country they may be in. Regardless of the race, color, or creed, and purchase that information from you to understand them, understand that community. You, as a buyer, having those resources should say, I need to be responsible for understanding. I need to be responsible for the communities I affect, and in doing so, I need to share in that value and share in that understanding with those that are creating it. Those are those people. So as a buyer, I need to come to this marketplace, and I need to afford opportunities to others so they can share with me, and I can create new ones for all.
Jason Rigby (09:48):
So, if I want to sell my social determinants of health, and I want to fill out the SDHO packet, or I want to buy those packets, how would I do that?
Alexander McCaig (09:58):
You go to Tartle.co, and you can click on the tab as a seller or a buyer, and you click get started. And that will take you down one of two paths. I either want to sell my information, or I want to acquire information. Both albeit simple, and you can get going very quickly, and you can pay with over 140 different Fiat currencies to go in and purchase that information from those individuals.
Jason Rigby (10:18):
And timeframe for signing up. How long does it take to sign up to Tartle?
Alexander McCaig (10:23):
Under a minute?
Jason Rigby (10:24):
Wow.
Alexander McCaig (10:25):
Legitimately under a minute.
Jason Rigby (10:27):
So we encourage everyone. Tartle.co. It's not a waste of time.
Alexander McCaig (10:33):
It's just-
Jason Rigby (10:34):
We're saving humanity.
Alexander McCaig (10:36):
We're helping save humanity. And some people just lack a certain knowing ness. And then I guess this person's just projecting.
Jason Rigby (10:44):
If they sign up for Tartle.co and they're perceiving it as a waste time, we'd love to have a conversation with you.
Alexander McCaig (10:48):
Yeah. Actually, you know what I say to them? Prove it.
Jason Rigby (10:51):
Yeah, exactly.
Alexander McCaig (10:52):
Prove to me. Go ahead.
Jason Rigby (10:54):
Yeah, but they can... What is it? Contact@tartle.co.
Alexander McCaig (10:56):
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jason Rigby (10:57):
Yeah. Send an email. We'd love to-
Alexander McCaig (10:59):
Go for it.
Jason Rigby (10:59):
Yeah. That would be awesome.
Alexander McCaig (11:00):
Thanks everybody.
Speaker 4 (11:10):
Thank you for listening to Tartle Cast with your hosts, Alexander McCaig and Jason Rigby. Where humanity steps into the future and resource data defines the path. What's your data worth?
