Role of Health Information Technology in Addressing Health Disparities

Abstract

Over the last decade, health information technology (IT) has dramatically transformed medical practice in the United States. On May 11-12, 2017, the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD), in partnership with the National Science Foundation and the National Health IT Collaborative for the Underserved, convened a scientific workshop, "Addressing Health Disparities with Health Information Technology," with the goal of ensuring that future research guides potential health IT initiative to address the needs of health disparities populations.The workshop examined patient, clinician, and system perspectives on the potential role of health IT in addressing health disparities. Attendees were asked to identify and discuss various health IT challenges that confront underserved communities and propose innovative strategies to address them, and to involve these communities in this process. Community engagement, cultural competency, and patient-centered care were highlighted as key to improving health equity, as well as to promoting scalable, sustainable, and effective health IT interventions. Participants noted the need for more research on how health IT can be used to evaluate and address social determinants of health. Expanding public-private partnerships was emphasized, as was the importance of clinicians and IT developers partnering and using novel methods to learn how to improve healthcare decision-making. Finally, to advance health IT and promote health equity, it will be

Funding of Hispanic/Latino Health-Related Research by the National Institutes of Health: An Analysis of the Portfolio of Research Program Grants on Six Health Topic Areas

“…At the same time, our analysis suggests that health services research, translational medicine, and/or CBPR are types of research that could be further developed within the context of the six health condition areas that were reviewed. Whereas the focus on implementation science and translational research at the NIH has been increasing (92,93), our findings suggest that future research could focus on understudied approaches in Hispanic/Latino health, including, but not limited to, deeper understanding of effectiveness of currently recommended therapies and potential differences among heritage groups (56,(94)(95)(96); participation and/or increased inclusion in genetics/genomic studies (97)(98)(99); innovative strategies to implement recommended guidelines of care, and especially those move beyond the "sideways" approach (100); the intersection (101-103) of social determinants of health other factors on disease risk and the effectiveness of clinical or multi-level interventions (104)(105)(106)(107); design and analysis of multi-level or multi-sectoral (108)(109)(110) interventions; implementation and dissemination studies in real-world settings (92,111); the role of health information technologies on health-care delivery and health outcomes (112)(113)(114)(115)(116)(117)(118); the impact of interventions or policies designed to reduce health and health-care disparities (119)(120)(121)(122)(123)(124)(125)(126); and the effects of national or local policies on healthcare services and health outcomes (e.g., natural experiments) (127,…”

Can disability accommodation needs stored in electronic health records help providers prepare for patient visits? A qualitative study

“…While some of these publications consider which population characteristics should be included in the EHR structure, for example, age, race, ethnicity, spoken language, and marital status, disability status or accommodation needs as potential data fields are rarely mentioned [17,23,24]. Recent additions to the health information technology literature have discussed how population information can be produced that could be used to identify and address health disparities [25,26]. However, people with disabilities are not identified as a health disparities group in these articles.…”

“…Primary care staff are not expected to be masters of the technical characteristics of EHR systems, but they are users who can offer important guidance regarding the best location, timing, and format of accommodation requirements. The involvement of providers and patients in the identification of EHR capabilities and structure has been recommended by others as a means of increasing EHR buy-in and utilization [26,49]. A primary recommendation of the Health Center staff was that the accommodation need information be placed where it could be readily noticed by schedulers, nurses, doctors, medical assistants, referral specialists, and others.…”

Equidad, abordajes interculturales y acceso a la información sobre las medicinas tradicionales, complementarias e integrativas en las Américas

“…Las MTCI se han recomendado como una vía para fortalecer los servicios de salud integrados y centrados en las personas (3,7). Por su parte, el acceso a la información es un derecho humano y es, junto al acceso a las tecnologías de la información para la salud, un elemento fundamental para hacer frente a las inequidades relacionadas con la salud (8,9). Las barreras para acceder a la información en todos los niveles son determinantes sociales de la salud que, a su vez, influyen en otros determinantes sociales.…”