OBJECTIVES: The quality of public health has far-reaching effects on economic, social, and environmental factors. The growing importance of social and environmental outcomes in decision making, not currently captured within traditional health economic evaluation models, has created a gap in evidence generation for healthcare interventions. This study investigates the applicability of Social Return on Investment (SROI) in modelling of healthcare interventions, considering economic, social, and environmental outcomes beyond the current scope considered in traditional modelling and HTA submissions. Furthermore, this study evaluates the current level of utilization of SROI modelling within healthcare interventions.

METHODS: A landscaping review was conducted to investigate published SROI models within healthcare interventions, health improvement programs, and health-base policies. The review evaluated the methods, outcomes, and narratives employed to assess the current utilization of SROI models and their potential effectiveness in generating evidence concerning the benefits of healthcare interventions.

RESULTS: The review found 22 publications for SROI models and 10 publications relevant to SROI methodology within the healthcare setting have been published since 2013. The analysis of papers revealed that SROI modelling holds significant promise as a tool, capturing the impact on a wide array of factors influencing the patient’s lifestyle and society and could be seen as the natural evolution of the traditional health economic models. However, most SROI models took a qualitative approach to outcomes, with the general lack of data and established methods surrounding the valuation of non-monetizable parameters limiting the application of quantitative value.

CONCLUSIONS: The usage of SROI modelling can provide a more comprehensive assessment of health interventions compared to traditional health economic evaluations, allowing the demonstration of a much wider range of value sources for healthcare interventions. However, standardization of the valuation of non-monetizable parameters would be required to improve comparability between SROI models and accommodate their wider usage.