Due to necessary scheduled maintenance, the JMIR Publications website will be unavailable from Wednesday, July 01, 2020 at 8:00 PM to 10:00 PM EST. We apologize in advance for any inconvenience this may cause you.
Who will be affected?
Readers: No access to all 28 journals. We recommend accessing our articles via PubMed Central
Authors: No access to the submission form or your user account.
Reviewers: No access to your user account. Please download manuscripts you are reviewing for offline reading before Wednesday, July 01, 2020 at 7:00 PM.
Editors: No access to your user account to assign reviewers or make decisions.
Copyeditors: No access to user account. Please download manuscripts you are copyediting before Wednesday, July 01, 2020 at 7:00 PM.
The digital health paradox: international policy perspectives to address the increased health inequalities for people living with disabilities
Robin van Kessel;
Rok Hrzic;
Ella O'Nuallain;
Elizabeth Weir;
Brian Li Han Wong;
Michael Anderson;
Simon Baron-Cohen;
Elias Mossialos
ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the uptake of digital health worldwide and highlighted many benefits of these innovations. However, it also stressed the magnitude of inequalities regarding accessing digital health. This article explores the potential benefits of digital technologies for the global population, with particular reference to people living with disabilities, taking the autism community as a case study. We ultimately explore policies in Sweden, Australia, Canada, Estonia, the United Kingdom, and the United States to learn how policies can lay an inclusive foundation for digital health systems. We conclude that digital health ecosystems should be designed with health equity at the forefront to avoid deepening existing health inequalities. We call for a more sophisticated understanding of digital health literacy to better assess the readiness to adopt digital health innovations. Finally, people living with disabilities should be positioned at the centre of digital health policy and innovations to ensure they are not left behind.
Citation
Please cite as:
van Kessel R, Hrzic R, O'Nuallain E, Weir E, Wong BLH, Anderson M, Baron-Cohen S, Mossialos E
Digital Health Paradox: International Policy Perspectives to Address Increased Health Inequalities for People Living With Disabilities