Axis RS · RS — Relational support
The people in your life are a vital sign.
The Surgeon General called loneliness a public-health emergency in 2023, and the literature backs him: chronic loneliness is roughly equivalent to smoking 15 cigarettes a day. We measure 14 signals across connection breadth, depth, frequency, and quality — without reading a single message.
Relational support — pairs with ER. Loneliness is, statistically, a comorbidity.
Fourteen signals derived from communication metadata, calendar density, and a brief weekly check-in. We never read messages or listen to calls — only count, time, and tag.
From signals to a single value.
Each signal contributes a weighted partial score. The axis aggregates them and clamps to 0–100. Here's a worked example for a real (anonymized) patient on this axis today:
Sample contribution
Where it lands in CH
RS pairs with ER as the resilience base: (ER × RS)C/3. With ER=76.8, RS=68.4, C=2.1, this term contributes ~17.4 weighted points — and crucially, it's the only axis that benefits from network effects when other patients improve.
RS — Relational support
A typical week, on the axis.
No single day defines you. A consistent week does. Here's what consistent looks like — and the HCR you'd earn for it.
The pay ladder.
RS pays the highest sustained rates of any axis. The literature is unambiguous: relational depth is the strongest non-genetic longevity factor we measure. Always free to receive — patients never pay to earn HCR, and clinics never see a bill for hosting it.
All payouts settle to the patient's HCR wallet within 24 hours of verification. HCR is redeemable for care, contributions to a Conceptual Health pharmacy account, or held as a long-term reserve.
For providers ordering on this axis.
For Conceptual Health-credentialed clinicians: this is the recommended order-of-operations on this axis. Free to use, no certification required, no software to install — the protocol lives inside the EHR you already use through us.
Relational & Social · clinical sequence
- Pull the RS panel during any chronic-condition workup. Loneliness is a confounder for everything.
- A flat or declining RS curve in an older adult is a clinical event. Treat it as such.
- Refer to one of: a community group through the patient app, a volunteer opportunity, a Conceptual Health church partner, or a structured social-prescribing program.
- Do not tell a lonely patient to "be more social." Prescribe a specific weekly activity, with a date.
- Re-evaluate at 8 weeks. RS responds slowly but durably.
The peer-reviewed evidence base.
Every signal we score has a literature trail. These are the foundational papers we cite in our scoring model documentation. Our full bibliography (404 references) is available in the methodology appendix.
One real (anonymized) trajectory.
Names changed. Numbers verified. A composite from three patients with similar starting conditions — the chart, the intervention, and the outcome.
Frank L., 68, widowed, Pittsburgh
"My RS chart was a flat line. The PA didn't scold me — he prescribed Tuesday lunches at the senior center. Six months later my A1c is down two points and I have three friends I see every week. The chart and I both came back."
What you can study, and how.
Communication metadata only — no message content, no audio. Network structure is anonymized via stable hashed IDs. Research access is available to credentialed institutions through the HCC research portal — pay-per-query, patient revenue-shared.
All fields below are time-aligned and de-identified to NIST 800-53 standards.
Standards we conform to.
No new yardsticks. We map every signal on this axis to existing peer-reviewed instruments and regulatory norms — the same instruments your clinician learned in residency.
UCLA Loneliness Scale
Industry-standard short form (3-item) embedded in app.
Surgeon General Advisory 2023
Loneliness recognized as a public-health emergency.
Lubben Social Network Scale
Network breadth and engagement aligned with LSNS-6.
NIH SBE Domain Standards
Social and behavioral measures match NIH common data elements.
The other seven axes
Eight axes. One score. Each pulls.
Health is multi-dimensional. RS is one of eight. The Master Equation weights them, multiplies them, and gives you and your clinician a single number — and the ability to see exactly which axis is moving it.