Closing the Digital Divide in Interventions for Substance Use Disorder

Abstract

Digital health interventions are exploding in today’s medical practice and have tremendous potential to support the treatment of substance use disorders (SUD). Developers and healthcare providers alike must be cognizant of the potential for digital interventions to exacerbate existing inequities in SUD treatment, particularly as they relate to Social Determinants of Health (SDoH). To explore this evolving area of study, this manuscript will review the existing concepts of the digital divide and digital inequities, and the role SDoH play as drivers of digital inequities. We will then explore how the data used and modeling strategies can create bias in digital health tools for SUD. Finally, we will discuss potential solutions and future directions to bridge these gaps including smartphone ownership, Wi-Fi access, digital literacy, and mitigation of historical, algorithmic, and measurement bias. Thoughtful design of digital interventions is quintessential to reduce the risk of bias, decrease the digital divide, and create equitable health outcomes for individuals with SUD.