CommunityPulse
Upstream health equity, one story at a time
Empowering outreach workers to capture patient stories, identify social determinants of health, and visualize community needs, so decision-makers can intervene earlier.
By: Haiyuan Chen, Jarod Paulson, Sam Lui, Yuko Murayama
Built for Hack the Globe 2026
March 21st, 2026 - March 22nd, 2026
The Problem
Social determinants account for up to 55% of health outcomes, yet most interventions come too late to provide impactful help to those in crisis.
80%
of health outcomes are
shaped outside the clinic
55%
driven by social &
environmental factors
3×
higher premature death
in deprived areas
Outreach interviews generate rich data, but it's rarely analyzed, mapped, or acted upon.
Sources: WHO Social Determinants of Health; NCBI NBK573923
Our Solution
CommunityPulse turns every outreach interview into actionable, location-aware insights.
Pin-Based Location
Approximate proximity recording protects confidentiality while mapping community need.
Voice-to-Text Intake
Web Speech API captures interviews in real-time. No third-party applications needed.
AI Analysis
Local LLM (Ollama) anonymizes transcripts and provides an in-depth analysis that goes the extra step and identifies social determinants of health.
Heatmap Dashboard
Leaflet-powered geographic heatmap filterable by age, gender, and demographics.
Privacy-first design: all processing happens locally. No data leaves the device.
Impact & Relevance
Economic Burden
$6.2B
annual cost of health inequalities in Canada
14%+
of acute care & prescription costs
$399B
total Canadian healthcare spending (2025)
Proven Savings
$2,400
saved per person / year with SDOH interventions
4:1
return on investment for prevention programs
10–17%
healthcare cost reduction from social services
CommunityPulse ROI
$310M+
potential annual savings (conservative 5%)
80%
of health outcomes shaped by social factors
0.1%
mortality drop per cent shifted to social spending
Investing in upstream SDOH data infrastructure pays for itself — see Appendix for full evidence.
Sources: CIHI 2025; PHAC (PMC4910448); CMAJ 2018; WellCare/USF; Humana; Canada.ca
What's Next
Multi-language
Expansion
Support interviews in 50+ languages with multilingual LLM models
Predictive
Analytics
Forecast emerging health needs before emergencies escalate
Agency
Partnerships
Integrate directly with provincial & federal healthcare systems
Thank You
CommunityPulse — Built to make every story count.
Q & A Session
Questions? Feedback?
We’d love to hear from you!
References & Resources
Appendix
Government Cost Savings from Addressing
Social Determinants of Health
Data-driven evidence supporting CommunityPulse's value proposition
Business Model & Scalability
Business Operation Model
Scalability & Innovation
Low-cost, high-impact: built on open-source tools with zero per-interview licensing fees.
Technical Architecture
Voice Capture
Web Speech API
Anonymize & Analyze
Ollama (Local LLM)
Store Securely
DynamoDB (Local)
Heatmap Visualization
Leaflet Heatmap
Tech Stack
Next.js + TypeScript
Full-stack React framework
Tailwind CSS
Rapid, consistent UI styling
Ollama
Local LLM for secured privacy and confidentiality of PIIs
Leaflet
Interactive geographic mapping
Web Speech API
Browser-native voice capture
AWS DynamoDB
Scalable NoSQL storage
Technology-Problem Fit: Local-first architecture ensures patient privacy while enabling powerful AI analysis.
Canada's Healthcare Spending
Current state of healthcare expenditure and public health investment
$399B
Total health spending
in Canada (2025)
$9,626
Per capita healthcare
spending
12.7%
Healthcare as a
share of GDP
Key Insight: Only 7.5% of Canada's public health budget goes to prevention — while 63.7% goes to curative care. Shifting even a small portion upstream could yield massive savings.
Source: CIHI National Health Expenditure Trends, 2025 | Queen's University Gazette, 2024
The Cost of Health Inequalities
Direct economic burden of socioeconomic health inequalities in Canada
$6.2
BILLION / YEAR
Annual cost of socioeconomic
health inequalities in Canada
Over 14% of total acute care, prescription
medication, and physician costs
$3.7B
Attributable to the lowest income group alone (60% of total burden)
4:1
Savings-to-cost ratio for targeted preventive programs (e.g., Canadian needle exchange data)
10–17%
Typical healthcare cost reduction when individuals are connected to social services
Source: Public Health Agency of Canada (PMC4910448) | Canada.ca Investing in Prevention | Axios, 2022
Proven Cost Savings from SDOH Interventions
Published research demonstrating return on investment
$2,400 Saved Per Person / Year
Connecting individuals to social services yielded a 10% reduction in healthcare costs — roughly $2,400 per person annually.
WellCare & U. of South Florida
$3.4M Program Savings (17%)
Randomized trial of SDOH case management for Medicaid patients saved $3.4M — 17% of yearly program expenses in hospitalization costs.
UC Berkeley / Contra Costa Health
34% Reduction in Chronic Disease Costs
Preventing early chronic diseases can reduce spending by 34%. Treating unmanaged behavioral health can cut costs by 60%.
Humana Bold Goal Initiative
Canadian CMAJ Evidence
Each additional cent of social spending per dollar of health spending was linked to a 0.1% decrease in avoidable mortality across provinces.
CMAJ 2018, Provincial Data 1981–2011
Projected Savings for CommunityPulse
Conservative projections based on published SDOH intervention data
Annual SDOH-attributable burden in Canada: $6.2 Billion
▼
5% Reduction
$310M
saved annually
Conservative:
Minimal SDOH
intervention reach
10% Reduction
$620M
saved annually
Moderate:
Scaled community
outreach programs
15% Reduction
$930M
saved annually
Optimistic:
Broad adoption with
predictive analytics
Even a modest 5% reduction justifies significant investment in SDOH data infrastructure like CommunityPulse.
Impact & Relevance
Who Benefits?
Meaningful Impact
Ethical Design
Backed by WHO research: addressing social determinants prevents health crises before they start.
Appendix References
1. CIHI — National Health Expenditure Trends, 2025
https://www.cihi.ca/en/national-health-expenditure-trends
2. Public Health Agency of Canada — Direct Economic Burden of Health Inequalities
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4910448/
3. Canada.ca — Investing in Prevention: The Economic Perspective
https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/services/health-promotion/population-health/investing-prevention-economic-perspective-key-findings.html
4. CMAJ — Provincial Spending on Social Services and Health Outcomes
https://www.cmaj.ca/content/190/3/E66
5. Healthcare Finance News — Social Determinants Reduce Healthcare Spending
https://www.healthcarefinancenews.com/news/social-determinants-shown-reduce-healthcare-spending
6. Axios — Addressing Social Determinants: Effective but Costly
https://www.axios.com/2022/07/05/addressing-social-determinants-in-health-care-effective-but-expensive
7. Healthcare IT News — SDOH and the $1.7 Trillion Opportunity
https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/social-determinants-health-and-17-trillion-opportunity-slash-spending
8. Health Affairs — US Health Systems' Investment in SDOH (2017–2019)
https://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/10.1377/hlthaff.2019.01246
9. Queen's University Gazette — Canada's Health Budget for Preventive Care
https://www.queensu.ca/gazette/stories/increasing-canada-s-health-budget-preventive-and-social-care-makes-sense-fiscally-and
10. CMS — Roadmap for States to Address SDOH
https://www.cms.gov/newsroom/press-releases/cms-issues-new-roadmap-states-address-social-determinants-health-improve-outcomes-lower-costs