Centering Equity in Digital Health: Solution Implementation

Technology can improve health care quality and outcomes, reduce costs, and expand access. However, health care systems and practices often struggle with finite resources, competing priorities, and fragmented health information technology that can limit the impact, reach, and sustainability of technology across different user groups, resulting in inequities. These challenges are present in all health care systems, but they are particularly acute in safety-net health settings that serve communities with low income, because these systems serve higher proportions of uninsured and underinsured patients. Safety-net health systems often rely on public funding from state and local governments. In this second module of a three-part series, we will discuss strategies for implementing and operationalizing digital health solutions that benefit and do no harm to all patients. Because of the critical role that safety-net settings play in delivering care to marginalized patients, this module centers the considerations for safety-net settings, in line with the value of ‘centering the margins.’ However, lessons about delivering equitable care through innovation are broadly applicable across care settings.