On Oct. 26, the American Telemedicine Association (ATA) published a report entitled, “A Framework for Eliminating Health Disparities Using Telehealth.”
The report states “The U.S. has entered a period where the subject of disparities is receiving a historic level of attention by government and market stakeholders. This focus and the collective energy that accompanies it is welcome after decades of widening socioeconomic gaps across American communities and well-documented disparities in health among rural/urban communities, communities of color, and tribal nations.”
Further, “The ATA organized the CEO’s Advisory Group on Using Telehealth to Eliminate Disparities and Inequities (Advisory Group)—a broad and diverse group of leaders from healthcare delivery systems, community organizations, payers, solution providers and policy, co-chaired by Kristi Henderson; Yasmine Winkler; and Ron Wyatt, M.D. The Advisory Group’s objective is to advance a framework, roadmap, and other relevant materials for addressing disparities that will be broadly applicable across the health industry while also identifying the very specific areas the ATA is both capable and committed to advancing within the telehealth industry.”
The components of the framework include:
- Connectivity: the means for individuals to access otherwise un- or less-available services through digital modalities
- Affordability: the measure of an individual’s financial capacity to access health services for the preservation or improvement of health regardless of socioeconomic conditions, including affordability of data plans and affordability of services—including telehealth
- Literacy: how health institutions and professionals communicate with individuals
- Structural competence: the technical skills and cultural awareness required for health professionals to work for and in the best interest of patients
- Inclusiveness: the advancement of highly specific and effective programs and systems that are deliberately and proactively inclusive of all persons under the stewardship of different parties with principles that ensure common treatment regardless of any cultural, physical, ethnic, or identity distinctions
- History, culture, trust, and structural anti-racism: the health industry must acknowledge and continually address to eliminate disparities
“Over the next year, the Advisory Group will enhance this framework and develop other key deliverables to help the health industry and society at-large seize on the many opportunities to deploy telehealth to ensure all Americans can access safe, effective, and appropriate care where and when they need it,” the report states. “The Advisory Group calls on its members, the health industry, policy makers, and influencers to examine how they are practicing the fundamental concepts depicted in the framework and utilize the framework’s nine elements to eliminate disparities.”
