Focus on Health Equity

Health IT and racial justice: Expanding access, ending disparities, empowering communities

We launch this page during Black History Month to celebrate the accomplishments of Black people across the healthcare industry – and to acknowledge the injustice and racism that still affect health outcomes today. And we do so with the recognition that the unique stories of people of color need telling year-round.

The concept of health equity is not a new one, but in recent months the term, rightly, has been discussed perhaps more than ever. As COVID-19 vaccine distribution continues to expand, the need to broaden its reach to underserved communities – those who have been the most disproportionately affected by this ongoing public health emergency – is acute.

Going forward, we'll continue to focus on population health, patient engagement, social determinants, broadband expansion and other efforts to bridge the digital divide and expand healthcare access. This month and every month we and our sister sites MobiHealthNews and Healthcare Finance News will be reporting on the challenges, opportunities and success stories as work continues to build a healthcare system that works for everyone.

Brett Furst HHS Tech Group AI
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A healthcare AI expert offers a deep look into how these technologies can get to illnesses before...
By Bill Siwicki |
Daniel Brillman Unite Us 2023 predictions
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So say experts from Unite Us, who also offer a deep dive into health equity in 2022 and 2023.
By Bill Siwicki |
Mayealie Adams
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Mayealie Adams, managing director of government and external affairs at Philips, discusses the...
By Kat Jercich |
A doctor at a computer
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A wide-ranging Commonwealth Fund analysis aims to evaluate health equity across race and ethnicity...
By Kat Jercich |
Micophone and radio
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Digital health movers and shakers weigh in on how the industry can make progress on building next-...
By MobiHealthNews Staff |
A person using the phone
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But a recent study published in the Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine found that...
By Kat Jercich |
Dr. Patrice Harris
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The former president of the American Medical Association says that development requires clear-eyed...
By Kat Jercich |
A doctor on their laptop
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An advisory group convened by the organization released a framework of nine elements that can be...
By Kat Jercich |
Code on a black screen
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A recent study counters the perception that mitigating bias in machine learning models requires...
By Kat Jercich |
A person using a computer and holding a teacup
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But a new report finds that many barriers to connectivity remain, with nearly 40% of Black people...
By Kat Jercich |
Dr. Mike Dulin, chief medical officer at Gray Matter Analytics and a professor at UNC Charlotte
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Dr. Mike Dulin, chief medical officer at Gray Matter Analytics and a professor at UNC Charlotte,...
By HIMSS TV |
A genderqueer person receiving menstrual products from a doctor
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Researchers, including ONC Deputy National Coordinator Steven Posnack, noted that existing sex and...
By Kat Jercich |
A person wearing a VR headset
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A study from UC San Francisco found that frontline pain management clinicians are curious about VR...
By Kat Jercich |
Community health worker holds conference call
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The program will offer technology and AWS credits for select organizations worldwide that leverage...
By Mike Miliard |
Steve Posnack
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But another panelist at the ONC Tech Forum on Friday noted that those two terms are not necessarily...
By Kat Jercich |
A person receiving the COVID-19 vaccine
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With more and more organizations requiring proof of COVID-19 vaccination, attention has to be paid...
By Kat Jercich |
A vaccination
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The new Providence National Foundation is targeting technologies and strategies for wider access to...
By Mike Miliard |
Dr. Cate Crowley Columbia University telehealth
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Dr. Cate Crowley, a professor at Columbia University and cleft palate care medical advisor,...
By Bill Siwicki |
The Mount Sinai Hospital telehealth
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The New York health system integrates Language Line Solutions, Epic and Caregility to deliver...
By Bill Siwicki |
A person in scrubs on the computer
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In a recent "un-meeting," a wide variety of stakeholders collaborated to discuss...
By Kat Jercich |
President Biden, Photo by Stefani Reynolds/Getty Images
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States will get $12 billion to increase testing, and vulnerable populations will get $150 million...
By Mallory Hackett |
UPMC Magee remote patient monitoring RPM
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Remote patient monitoring linked to the EHR helps researchers reveal important discoveries about...
By Bill Siwicki |
National Coordinator for Health IT Micky Tripathi
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As he focuses on shoring up data-sharing resiliency and ensuring that new IT initiatives bake in...
By Mike Miliard |
clinician giving patient a shot
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Blacks, Hispanics and people in fair or poor health showed the biggest jumps in vaccine...
By Jeff Lagasse |
Surgeon touching digital interface
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Because many payment strategies are as new as the treatments, the coming years will be a test for...
By Mallory Hackett |
Doctor and patient
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The money is expected to fund about 30 projects in urban communities and 43 projects in rural...
By Susan Morse |
A person gets vaccinated by another person, both in masks
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The American Medical Association, the American Nurses Association and the American Pharmacists...
By Kat Jercich |
A younger person shows an older person something on the phone
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Experts at the WEDI conference outlined steps for institutions and clinical teams to take toward...
By Kat Jercich |
Person using rideshare app on smartphone
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The organizations will directly fund rides through route ride credits using Lyft's...
By Susan Morse |
The AMA logo
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The organization acknowledged the racist and exclusionary actions of its commonly recognized...
By Kat Jercich |
Helio Health Syracuse New York telehealth telemedicine
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"People like it, they've gotten used to it and they're comfortable with it," says...
By Bill Siwicki |
Doctor holding syringe and vial Photo by Karl Tapales/Getty Images
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California and its Governor Gavin Newsom have received backlash for the state's slower-than-...
By Mallory Hackett |
A patient in a hospital bed
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The research team noted that lung tissue gets stiffer as a person gets older, showing different...
By Kat Jercich |
A person sits looking at a computer
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A new study found that portal users had higher knowledge about their disease, higher ratings of...
By Kat Jercich |
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The grant was given to the state group to increase telemedicine quality and access, with the goal...
By Bill Siwicki |
Food pantry workers unloading boxes
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Organizations must reorient to care for patients in and out of the clinical setting, according to...
By Mallory Hackett |
Nurse administers COVID-19 vaccine.
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Even as the medical association itself works toward more diversity, it's helping lead the...
By Mike Miliard |
BAME, data, covid-19
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BAME groups can be disadvantaged by algorithms which perpetuate structural inequalities.
By Tammy Lovell |
St. John's Well Child and Family Center in Los Angeles
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St. John's Well Child and Family Center in Los Angeles has completed 93,000 telehealth visits...
By Bill Siwicki |
A person looks at a doctor on a screen
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Virtual care is not a panacea, said panelists at the American Telemedicine Association's EDGE...
By Kat Jercich |
A fingertip pulse oximeter
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Researchers in a New England Journal of Medicine report found that Black patients had nearly three...
By Kat Jercich |
Rep. Robin Kelly
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Reps. Robin Kelly and Anna Eshoo said that while telemedicine has the potential to expand access to...
By Kat Jercich |
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A new article in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association points to the...
By Kat Jercich |
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Although telemedicine can be a way to fill gaps in access to healthcare providers, policymakers...
By Kat Jercich |
Alliance for Better Health CEO Dr. Jacob Reider
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Alliance for Better Health CEO Dr. Jacob Reider discusses the data and IT demands of coordinating...
By HIMSS TV |
Ziad Obermeyer, Kadija Ferryman and Stephen Wellman
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Biased algorithms are bad for patients – but with more awareness of potential AI disparities...
By Kat Jercich |
Dr. Jason Tibbels of Teladoc speaks during a virtual Ways and Means meeting.
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Reform efforts must be coupled with significant and targeted investment to bridge the digital...
By Susan Morse |
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The two pilot projects involve using voice-recognition technology to remind patients to take...
By Kat Jercich |