Digital Inclusion Pathways To Health Equity
Authors: Amy R. Sheon, Elaine C. Khoong
As health care increasingly shifts online, digital inclusion has become a critical pathway to health equity. This policy brief examines how access to broadband, devices, digital skills, and technical support shapes patients’ ability to engage in virtual care, use patient portals, and manage health through digital tools such as telehealth, mobile apps, and remote monitoring. Drawing on post-2020 evidence, it highlights how longstanding disparities by income, education, age, language, and race reemerge with each new technology, limiting the equity potential of digital health. The brief outlines actionable policy, health system, workforce, and technology strategies to support equitable digital health adoption, including sustained broadband affordability, digital readiness screening, workforce training, user-centered technology design, and reimbursement for digital navigation and support. Together, these approaches underscore that universal digital access and literacy are now essential health policy imperatives for advancing health care access and health equity.