Digital Health Care Disparities

• Published in: The Hastings Center report 2021-02, Vol.51 (1), p.1-1
• Main Author: Korngiebel, Diane M.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: at the center
• ISSN: 0093-0334; 1552-146X

Digital health includes applications for smartphones and smart speakers as well as more traditional ways to access health information electronically, such as through your health care provider’s online web-based patient portal. As the number of digital health offerings—such as smartphone health trackers and web-based patient portals—grows, what benefit do ethics, or bioethics, perspectives bring to digital health product development? For starters, the field of bioethics is concerned about issues of social justice, including equitable benefit and minimization and fair distribution of the burden of harms. Researchers who employ user-centered design methods should consider what digital health applications and products would look like if issues like equity and accessibility were foregrounded throughout design and development. One group whose needs are often neglected in the design of digital health products is older adults. Many people anticipate that the digital divide among older adults will close as the current generation of tech-savvy consumers ages up. But since technology is constantly evolving, this divide may be constantly recreated. As bioethics moves ever further into the technology era, I want it to be mindful of the creation of digital health care disparities.