Why Healthcare & Digital Inclusion Collaboration is Needed The doctor grabbing the patient’s phone. “Here–let me download MyChart so you can check your lab result yourself!” The highly skilled digital skill instructor asking me for a tutorial on the patient portal because they had never used one. Digital navigators enthusiastically encouraging patients to message their doctors through the portal. The…
New CMS Rules for Digital Literacy Screening New rules from The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) for digital literacy screening and education by Medicare Advantage (MA) organizations could be game-changers for digital inclusion and for health equity. Five in particular that stand out: Identify People with Digital Readiness Gaps: Recognizing that “Low digital health literacy is one of…
A number of health systems that I work with (and many that I don’t!) have grown alarmed by disparities in telehealth use. Who connects by video and who by audio? Who tries video but the effort fails, leading to desperate phone calls? Who still comes into the office, risking COVID transmission? Who goes the the Emergency Department because they’ve avoided…
It’s been way too long since I’ve posted a blog on digital inclusion. Simply, I’ve been too busy! Which, when you’ve taken the leap to quit your job for full time consulting, is an unexpected, if not entirely unwelcome situation. Quite frankly, organizations are starting to “get it.” What are they getting? How and why digital inclusion is essential to…
People who are poor, are racial and ethnic minorities and have no insurance or Medicaid are most likely to rate their care quality lower than others. The Telehealth Equity Coalition just published a data story about how telehealth can address these gaps.
It’s possible for health care to try to close digital gaps while ignoring underlying structural racism. But recognizing and confronting it is a better approach.
The National Science Foundation today announced that Cleveland will share $2.7million with 6 other cities testing innovative methods to end the digital divide. Public Health Innovators is proud to work with DigitalC to bring affordable broadband to underserved urban neighborhoods. But we know that just making service available is not enough. Through partnerships with area health systems, we will help patients…
As part of its “Coping Through COVID” series, The Cleveland Plain Dealer recently published an article underscoring the need for more Black mental health counselors. Of course, the well-recognized excess burden of the pandemic among Blacks, who are already facing multiple vulnerabilities, creates more demand for mental health services. And reluctance in the Black community to seek mental health care…
I recently found a 1995 presentation with findings from my doctoral dissertation that are highly pertinent to COVID Vaccine trials. The study included anonymized interviews and surveys with the first high risk (#vulnerable) HIV vaccine efficacy trial participants. No space here to share the results but I thought readers would find the questions of interest:–Motivations for joining the trial (altruism,…