New Insights on Alleviating Health Disparities

Technology and data are behind every aspect of healthcare, from remote patient monitoring and chatbot-supported triage to clinical decision support and patient-facing digital health apps.

But the truth is, most health technology is not developed or distributed with health equity in mind, and is often negatively biased, inaccessible or lacking features or cultural context important for engaging underserved populations. Now, a new healthcare industry survey by the Techquity for Health Coalition shows that even when healthcare organizations are designing technology for health equity– or aiming for techquity–they’re not confident of their process, impact or the relevance of their metrics. 

But, the findings also point to areas of consensus on steps the industry can take to alleviate health disparities and address systemic inequities. 

Join John Cordier, CEO of Epistemix and an Advisor to the Techquity for Health Coalition, and Jody Tropeano, HLTH’s Director of Content, for a brief conversation on the survey’s key findings, its implications, and how the Techquity for Health Coalition will help the industry do better for marginalized patients.

The Techquity for Health survey was funded through the gracious support of The American Medical Association, Amazon Web Services, EmpiRx Health, Epistemix, Hopelab, NTT DATA, Outcomes4Me, ResMed, Tegria, UST, and VSP Global Innovation Center.

Read the survey report here.

To get involved with the Techquity for Health Coalition: info@hlthfoundation.org

Techquity for Health Coalition Advisors 

Leon Caldwell, PhD, American Hospital Association

Rowland Illing, DM, MRCS, MA, Amazon Web Services

Ricky Y. Choi, MD, MPH, Stanford University School of Medicine

John Cordier, MPH, MBA, Epistemix

Grace Cordovano, PhD, BCPA, Enlightening Results, LLC

Theresa Demeter, MHA, Tegria

Jaime Dictenberg, EmpiRx

Lisa Esch, NTT DATA

Will Flanagan, MBA, VSP Global Innovation Center

Raj Gorla, MBA, UST Contineo Health & UST Healthcare

Amy Green, PhD, HopeLab

Burgess Harrison, MBA, National Minority Health Association

Tanisha D. Hill, PhD, MPH, Digital Health for Equitable Health Alliance 

Aletha Maybank, MD, MPH, American Medical Association

Pooja Mittal, MD, Health Net

Dustin Nowaskie, MD, OutCare Health

Lorren Pettit, MS, MBA, CHIME

Kyu Rhee, MD, MPP, Stanford University School of Medicine; Center for Professionalism and Value in Healthcare; HLTH Foundation

Maya Said, PhD, Outcomes4Me

Carlos Nunez, MD, ResMed

Andrea Werner, MSW, Bellin Health and Gundersen Health System

Charlotte Yeh, MD, AARP Services

Janna Guinen, HLTH Foundation (convener)