The telehealth divide: health inequity during the COVID-19 pandemic

Fisher, Katie; Magin, Parker

doi:10.1093/fampra/cmab173

Cited by 27 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…The concerns expressed by the study population regarding the impact of virtual visits and asynchronous communication consultations have been expressed by patients and clinicians 40,41 and were the focus of UK media in the period before study recruitment opened. 20 Students were anxious about the lack of opportunities to perform physical examinations on patients and to pick up on important visual cues without face-to-face consultations.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of Increased Patient-Clinician Virtual Visits During the COVID-19 Pandemic on Medical Student Enthusiasm for Future General Practice Careers

Laake

Soysa

Subhaskaran

et al. 2023

Fam Med

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Background: The COVID-19 pandemic restricted the availability of face-to-face primary care visits. This rapidly increased the proportion of primary care patient-clinician visits conducted virtually and asynchronously (remote consultations via video, telephone, and web-based text/email), altering the educational environment for medical students. Our study explored the impact of the increased proportion of primary care visits conducted virtually and asynchronously, on medical students’ self-reported interest in pursuing a career in general (family) practice. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional survey study of medical students at six universities within England and Wales to explore the impact of the increased proportion of primary care visits conducted virtually and asynchronously on medical students’ interest in pursuing a career in general practice. Results: One hundred fifty-four medical students were recruited between December 2020 and May 2021; 79 (51%) of the participants reported being less interested in pursuing a career in general practice as a result of the increased proportion of virtual and asynchronous primary care visits during the COVID-19 pandemic. This increased to 104 (68%) of the participants reporting being less interested should primary care visits continue to be delivered virtually or asynchronously by default. Analysis of open-ended survey questions identified a poorer educational experience, concerns regarding the impact on patient care, an isolated working environment and technological challenges as key negative themes. Conclusions: Sociable, supportive working and learning environments and offering equitable care are important motivators for the future workforce. There is a need to develop robust training and assessment in patient-clinician virtual visits and asynchronous communication and to integrate this into curricula.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of Increased Patient-Clinician Virtual Visits During the COVID-19 Pandemic on Medical Student Enthusiasm for Future General Practice Careers

Laake

Soysa

Subhaskaran

et al. 2023

Fam Med

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“…This result is consistent with previous studies reporting particularly high information seeking needs among lower-income pregnant women [30,31], who represent a population at risk of developing pregnancy complications potentially due to unequal access to healthcare [32] or inadequate self-education capacities. Although differences emerged according to family income, with the poorest expectant and new parents expressing higher needs and expectations for the proposed app, attention must also be paid to the potential difficulties associated with the broader family income, which in turn could exacerbate rather than bridge the health divide that makes access to these mHealth solutions difficult due to the cost of the required device (e.g., smartphone, webcam, computer) or due to barriers caused by unstable Internet connections [33,34] in hard-to-reach areas. In addition, future and new mothers' expectations for the proposed mHealth solution were higher than those of future and new fathers.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessment of Needs and Expectations of Expectant and New Parents as a Fundamental Step in Co-design of a mHealth Application Supporting the First 1000 Days of Life

Brunelli¹,

Bussolaro²,

Dobrina³

et al. 2022

Preprint

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Background. To improve maternal and child health, it is essential to adhere to health-promoting and preventive measures. However, reliable information as well as effective tools are not easy to identify in this field. Our cross-sectional study investigated the needs and expectations of expectant and new mothers and fathers -primary users of an app supporting the first 1000 days of life. Methods. Between May and August 2022, we recruited expectant and new parents by administering a 71-item 5-point Likert scale questionnaire related to content, functionalities, and technical features of a hypothetical app. We stratified responses by sociodemographic characteristics and then performed ward hierarchical clustering. Results. The 94 women and 69 men involved in our study generally agreed with the proposed content, but expressed low interest in certain app functionalities, especially those related to interaction mechanism and interactivity. Women were generally more demanding than men, and family income declined as the needs and expectations increased. Conclusions. Our findings, resulting from the engagement of end-users, may be useful for designers and technology providers to implement mHealth solutions that, in addition to conveying reliable information, are tailored to the needs and preferences of end-users in the first 1000 days of life.

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“…The recent global pandemic renewed the significance of telecommunication as a critical infrastructure worldwide, as many COVID responses such as working from home, home-schooling, and e-commerce require quality access to the Internet. However, in reality, COVID exposed significant inequities and inequalities of access to telecommunication at transnational and transregional scales – even within cities and towns (Fisher and Magin 2021; Tienken 2020). With this in mind, it is interesting to note that in 1995, 25 years prior to COVID, Australia’s Prime Minister Paul Keating declared that "… access to the national information infrastructure will be no less a general right than access to water, or public transport or electricity” (Keating 1995).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Multi-Technology Footprint of the National Broadband Network in Australia: Exploring the Urban-Regional Divide and Socio-spatial Patterns for Inequality

Alizadeh

Helderop

Grubesic

et al. 2023

International Regional Science Review

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The recent global pandemic renewed the importance of telecommunication infrastructure, as many COVID responses (e.g., working from home, home-schooling, e-commerce) were challenged by the inequity of access to broadband services and its underlying network. This paper examines the geospatial footprint of the National Broadband Network (NBN) in relation to the demographics of Australia’s cities and regions. Through data made available by the NBN, which describes the technologies used in its multi-technology mix platform, and published demographic data available via the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), we explore the equity of access to broadband technologies across the nation. The results show a persistent urban-regional divide in the NBN. The paper also offers a brief assessment of the complex and contradictory ways policy responses attempt to mitigate the digital divide, including updates to the national infrastructure project plans.

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The telehealth divide: health inequity during the COVID-19 pandemic

Cited by 27 publications

References 20 publications

Impact of Increased Patient-Clinician Virtual Visits During the COVID-19 Pandemic on Medical Student Enthusiasm for Future General Practice Careers

Impact of Increased Patient-Clinician Virtual Visits During the COVID-19 Pandemic on Medical Student Enthusiasm for Future General Practice Careers

Assessment of Needs and Expectations of Expectant and New Parents as a Fundamental Step in Co-design of a mHealth Application Supporting the First 1000 Days of Life

The Multi-Technology Footprint of the National Broadband Network in Australia: Exploring the Urban-Regional Divide and Socio-spatial Patterns for Inequality

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