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Health disparity in digital health technology design

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Abstract

Purpose

The rapid development of digital health technology has transformed the current medical practice. However, lack of consideration for underserved groups during design process can exacerbate the existing health disparities, lead to unequal access to health care information and potentially worsen the health outcome. Our study aims to address these issues by providing insights of digital health design to improve health outcome among underserved communities.

Methods

This review paper studies the primary literature of health applications/tools that designed for underserved communities. Following PRISMA guideline, we performed a scoping review by searching published articles in five databases between January 1990 to October 2023.

Results

Eighteen articles were included in final review. Six main themes were identified by evaluating the functionalities of reviewed health applications/tools. These themes are feature categorization, user-centered design, iteration, messaging service, behavior change technique, and interactivity.

Conclusion

Our review suggests that designing health applications that are inclusive and accessible for diverse populations can better address health disparities issues. It is important that government, research institutions and industry should work together to advance application design and close the gap for health disparities.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to pharmacy professional students for their support at the Western University of Health Sciences.

Funding

Yanting Wu is currently supported by a fellowship grant from NIH/NIGMS: Clinical Pharmacology Division Indiana University School of Medicine (Grant number:2T32GM008425-31).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Clinical Pharmacology, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, USA

    Yanting Wu

  2. School of Social Work, California State University, San Bernardino, CA, USA

    Yawen Li

  3. Western University of Health Sciences, Pomona, CA, USA

    Andrius Baskys

  4. School of Applied Life Sciences, Keck Graduate Institute, Claremont Colleges, Claremont, CA, USA

    Jay Chok

  5. College of Pharmacy, Western University of Health Sciences, Pomona, CA, USA

    Janice Hoffman & Don Roosan

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  1. Yanting Wu
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Contributions

Yanting Wu and Don Roosan searched, analyzed, wrote, and reviewed the manuscript. Yawen Li, Andrius Baskys, Jay Chok, and Janice Hoffman critically reviewed and updated the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Yanting Wu or Don Roosan.

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Wu, Y., Li, Y., Baskys, A. et al. Health disparity in digital health technology design. Health Technol. 14, 239–249 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12553-024-00814-1

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