A new coalition aims to utilize and focus on consumer-facing mHealth and telehealth tools to mitigate health disparities.
Guided by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA) and Connected Health Initiative (CHI), the Health Equity and Access Leadership (HEAL) coalition brings together different organizations and companies in the digital health space.
The first project focuses on operational and policy recommendations to increase the value of connected health technology to tackle disparities in the US health system.
Rene Quashie, the CTA’s vice president of digital health said, the rise of digital health technology provides a unique opportunity to advance health equity, increase health care quality, improve access to care and lower costs.
Disparities in health have been a longstanding issue in the U.S., and the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed those gaps. Encouraging the use and adoption of technology will help reduce inefficiencies and provide more personalized care for marginalized patients and consumers.
Brian Scarpelli, CHI’s senior global policy counsel mentioned, this public health emergency has shown us that technology can assist providers to treat patients no matter their location. Leaving marginalized populations behind in these efforts is not feasible and greater efforts need to be made to examine how technology can close the gaps in the provision of care, due to racial disparities within the healthcare system.
The industry group wrote in their announcement that the first major project will be a white paper consisting of policy and operational recommendations to best deploy new health technologies.
Type of tools being explored include telehealth, remote health monitoring, clinical decision support, wearables, and artificial intelligence.
The Health Equity and Access Leadership (HEAL) coalition include 17 organizations within its membership:
The University of Virginia Center for Telehealth, Boston Children’s Hospital, the American Medical Association, the University of Mississippi Medical Center, Omron Healthcare, HP, Google, AT&T, Best Buy Health, Apple, Intel, Grapevine Health, MLEM, Validic, Cambria Health, ResMed and Rimidi.