Open AccessPromoting health equity for deaf patients through the electronic health record
Author(s) -
Tyler G. James,
Meagan K. Sullivan,
Joshua Butler,
Michael McKee
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
journal of the american medical informatics association
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.614
H-Index - 150
eISSN - 1527-974X
pISSN - 1067-5027
DOI - 10.1093/jamia/ocab239
Subject(s) - health equity , american sign language , equity (law) , sign language , health care , health records , medicine , psychology , internet privacy , gerontology , nursing , computer science , public health , political science , linguistics , philosophy , law
Language status can be conceptualized as an equity-relevant variable, particularly for non-English-speaking populations. Deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) individuals who use American Sign Language (ASL) to communicate comprise one such group and are understudied in health services research. DHH individuals are at high-risk of receiving lower-quality care due to ineffective patient-provider communication. This perspective outlines barriers to health equity research serving DHH ASL-users due to systems developed by large-scale informatics networks (eg, the Patient-Centered Clinical Outcomes Research Network), and institutional policies on self-serve cohort discovery tools. We list potential to help adequate capture of language status of DHH ASL-users to promote health equity for this population.