The prospect of digital inclusion, or “techquity,” — the idea that healthtech can be either a barrier or conduit to more accessibility and/or equality in care depending on factors such as purpose and design — has come to the fore of the discussion surrounding healthcare equality in the modern world. Researchers have raised the stakes on the subject recently, now deeming digital inclusion a “super” social determinant of health (SDoH), whose role in determining health outcomes is growing bigger by the day. Indeed, the confluence of a great many elements in this area is shown to either sow or mend division.
Techquity is the ideal that is increasingly leveraged as a foundational principle for value-based healthcare delivery organizations as well as startups in their mission to bolster health equity and hold more accountability for SDoH, particularly on myriad healthcare platforms. The concept, more accurately considered a call to action, was the word-de-jour at last month’s second annual ViVE conference in Nashville, where the first national survey on the topic was led by the Techquity for Health Coalition has its results revealed.
The National Techquity for Health questionnaire showed that just under 90% of participants demonstrated comprehension of the concept and how their unique role connects to it, and 66% of leaders indicated that initiatives have been put into place at their respective organizations to address health equity, with the most tapped-into form of initiative being community-based partnerships. Overall, the survey signaled a widespread desire to address disparities in health access, and further drove home the proviso that effective change will not arrive overnight, nor be spearheaded by a single push by a lone organization.
