Digital Health Equity and COVID-19: The Innovation Curve Cannot Reinforce the Social Gradient of Health (preprint)

Type Journal Article Author Allison Crawford Author Eva Serhal URL https://preprints.jmir.org/preprint/19361 Publication Journal of Medical Internet Research (JMIR) Preprints Date 26/05/2020 Call Number J Med Internet Res 2020;22(6):e19361 Extra Library Catalog: preprints.jmir.org DOI 10.2196/19361 Accessed 2020-07-05 21:07:22 Language en Abstract Journal of Medical Internet Research - International Scientific Journal for Medical Research, Information and Communication on the Internet, #Preprint #PeerReviewMe: Warning: This is a unreviewed preprint. Readers are warned that the document has not been peer-reviewed by expert/patient reviewers or an academic editor, may contain misleading claims, and is likely to undergo changes before final publication, if accepted, or may have been rejected/withdrawn. Readers with interest and expertise are encouraged to sign up as peer-reviewer, if the paper is within an open peer-review period. Please cite this preprint only for review purposes or for grant applications and CVs (if you are the author). Digital health innovations have been rapidly implemented and scaled to provide solutions to health delivery challenges posed by the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. This has provided people with ongoing access to vital health services while minimizing their potential exposure to infection and allowing them to maintain social distancing. However, these solutions may have unintended consequences for health equity. Poverty, lack of access to digital health, poor engagement with digital health for some communities, and barriers to digital health literacy are some factors that can contribute to poor health outcomes. We present the Digital Health Equity Framework, which can be used to consider health equity factors. Along with person-centered care, digital health equity should be incorporated into health provider training and should be championed at the individual, institutional, and social levels. Important future directions will be to develop measurement-based approaches to digital health equity and to use these findings to further validate and refine this model. Short Title Digital Health Equity and COVID-19