Telehealth Expansion and Health Disparities: Three Leaders Weigh in

From a technology perspective, I would say one "don't" is don't reinvent the wheel. For example, we reached out to community health colleagues in the system to look for touchpoints in the communities we serve, rather than reinventing the wheel. One of our communities has a large population of brown and black people, so we worked to identify the go-to, trusted locations for that population, especially people who may not be a "digital native." For an older black person, a trusted entity in their community might be the church.

So, we've started talking to church leaders in this community. How can we set up telemedicine programs where we are assuring the church has high-speed availability and potentially resources there that can help folks who are non-digital natives navigate a virtual visit for the first time and become comfortable with it? Rather than thinking independently — 'where can we set up locations that folks could come to if they don't have broadband access?' — approach it as 'what is already there that we can plug into and add value?'