Tech for Fair Health: How Innovation is Bridging Health Disparities and Tackling Social Determinants

The growing population worldwide is slowly revealing the deep concerns of the healthcare industry. And Health Equity is one of the critical ones. The stark health disparities in healthcare delivery and outcomes persist across various populations. As per WHO, income is a major predictor of health outcomes, with lower income groups getting poorer health outcomes than financially sound groups. Even in the United States, the life expectancy can differ by 20 years between affluent and poverty-stricken neighborhoods. Besides, the social determinants of health (SDoH), such as education, poverty, shelter, and access to quality healthcare, should be considered. After all, it has a lot to do with Health Equity.??

Times have changed, and the healthcare scenario is witnessing a dramatic shift. Innovative digital health solutions can now influence and make the healthcare sector equitable. Healthcare and life science companies can effectively address health equity challenges with digital health technology. However, it can also exacerbate exclusion and widen the digital divide even more, leaving some populations behind. So, the right way to leverage digital health technology is important. Take a look at how-??

Establishment of a Proper Technological Foundation??

According to the Advancing Health Equity Through Technology Policy by HEAL, there are primarily three notable barriers-??

• Access to a broadband connection??
• Lack of digital literacy??
• Data privacy concerns??

Closing equity gaps takes a lot of work, but digital tools can be crucial in that process. Digital health entrepreneurs might imagine how their solution can address health equity by drawing inspiration from start-ups and established leaders in the industry. Besides, by making healthcare more accessible, addressing unmet needs, personalizing care for patients, and taking into account the historical context of the communities they serve, digital solutions can increase equity. To create and expand their products to have a significant impact, digital health innovators can benefit from understanding these three potential areas and working on them to establish a strong technological foundation.??

Affordable Broadband Access??

Today everyone seems to own a smartphone or have access to the internet. But still, some communities and regions need more internet or broadband services. According to recent reports, nearly 24% of Georgia's residents still don't have broadband availability and over 30% in the US. This percentage is higher in Black and other indigenous groups.???

According to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), racial and ethnic minorities, persons living on tribal territories, aged people, and people with lower educational and financial levels are less likely to have home internet. Also, the FCC data highlights inhabitants of locations with poorer internet connectivity have greater rates of obesity, diabetes, unneeded hospitalizations, and sick days than the national average.??

With many programs, there may be gradual progress in the situation. As of 2022, nearly 10M US households were successfully enrolled in the Affordable Connectivity Program that provides long-term benefits of almost $14B to those with incomes 200% of the FPG. With this, digital health programs can reach every house, boost health outcomes, and make healthcare equitable.??

Promotion of Digital Literacy?

Nearly half of Americans struggle with health literacy. And what makes this even more complicated is the need for digital literacy. As per AHRQ statistics, only 12% of Americans are proficient with health literacy, and the rest need help to manage everyday health-related tasks. With digitization, healthcare stakeholders have high expectations of improving health literacy. The situation may worsen when people lack basic knowledge of handling digital platforms and apps. Educational and linguistic barriers are also possible reasons for this. Hence, it's essential to provide proper training and support when leveraging digital technologies for healthcare.??

Data Privacy Concerns?

Data privacy breaches and threats impact every health process or system. Typically, it also impacts Health Equity, especially when people are too concerned about their data. It's more likely they won't share their data, and health equity decisions might be affected. Additionally, biases in data collection or analysis and discrimination are potential reasons for exacerbating health inequalities. Data privacy concerns can widen the digital divide.??

Digital innovators have an unmatched chance to consider health equity more seriously and generate new solutions to persistent healthcare issues. They must think about how to access disparities and reduce the number of "reachable" patients before deciding which aspect of health inequality their solution might address. The difficult task of creating and putting into practice the digital solutions that support the goal of health equity.??

How Can Digital Technology Track and Identify SDoH???

SDoH, or Social Determinants of Health, as WHO defines it, is a range of non-medical factors that can impact health outcomes. Typically, it's categorized into five domains- access to education and healthcare, demography and ecosystem, economic stability, and social and community. With the advent of digital health technologies like remote monitoring, mHealth, telemedicine, and so on, tracking and identifying SDoH is a lot easier. Here's how-??

• Standardization of Data Collection for SDoH Purposes-??

Organizations must recognize where disparity exists to address SDOH at an individual or population level. This data is frequently spread over several locations, including help desk notes, clinical notes, discharge summaries, patient intake forms, etc. Organizations should standardize data collection and expression whenever possible.??

Analysis of SDoH Data-??

Leveraging analytics to align the fragmented information for further decision-making is crucial. For SDoH data analytics, a well-defined goal is a must. It will make the data more valuable.??

Conclusion??

Healthcare stakeholders often link Health Equity and SDoH. While SDoH data tracking makes healthcare equitable, the need for technology in this space is growing. The key players are open to adopting digital health technologies like RPM and telemedicine and emerging technologies like Big Data and AI. While barriers like digital literacy will gradually perish, these technologies hold the upper hand in bridging the gaps and eliminating health disparities effectively.??