Social support system to connect Medicaid families with local services
Official title: The Development, Implementation, and Evaluation of a Social Engagement Support System
Funded at University of Maryland Baltimore County · NIH-11374970 · Data updated 2026-11-12
This project will build and test a smart system that finds Medicaid members with needs and helps connect them with local food, housing, and community supports.
Quick facts
| Grant type | R01 grant |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | University of Maryland Baltimore County NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (Baltimore, United States) |
| Project start | September 20, 2024 |
| Project end | April 30, 2029 |
| Funding year | 2026 |
| Award (this year) | $681,091 |
| NIH project number | 5R01MD019814-03 |
| Project ID | NIH-11374970 on NIH RePORTER |
Who could benefit from this research
✓Could help
Maryland Medicaid members—especially children, families, older adults, and people with chronic conditions who face social needs like food or housing insecurity—are the ideal candidates.
✕Less likely to help
People who are not enrolled in the partner Medicaid plan or who live outside the plan's service area are unlikely to benefit from this project.
What this research studies
You could be identified through your Medicaid records or clinic contacts and the new system would look for social needs like food insecurity or housing problems. The team will link health data and a digital matching tool that uses rules and AI to find appropriate community-based organizations and services. You may be contacted by your clinic, a care coordinator, or secure messages and offered tailored referrals, navigation help, and follow-up support. The system will be tested and refined with a Maryland managed care organization serving about 250,000 Medicaid members in real-world care settings.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, the system could help Medicaid families get faster, more reliable access to services that improve daily needs and health.
How similar studies have gone: Community navigation and social-needs screening programs have shown promise in helping some patients, but combining those methods with a large-scale data-driven digital system is relatively new.
Where this research is happening
-
University of Maryland Baltimore County
Baltimore, United States Active
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Stockwell, Ian — University of Maryland Baltimore County
- Study coordinator: Stockwell, Ian
About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page.