Open AccessFuture of digital health and community care: Exploring intended positive impacts and unintended negative consequences of COVID-19
Author(s) -
Mei Lan Fang,
Morven Walker,
Kam-Fai Wong,
Judith Sixsmith,
Leslie Remend,
Andrew Sixsmith
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
healthcare management forum
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.418
H-Index - 16
eISSN - 2352-3883
pISSN - 0840-4704
DOI - 10.1177/08404704221107362
Subject(s) - digitization , health care , digital health , equity (law) , unintended consequences , public relations , telehealth , political science , health equity , work (physics) , business , telemedicine , computer science , mechanical engineering , law , computer vision , engineering
Response to COVID-19 has both intentionally and unintentionally progressed the digitization of health and community care, which can be viewed as a human rights issue considering that access to health and community care is a human right. In this article, we reviewed two cases of digitization of health and community care during the pandemic; one in Scotland, United Kingdom and another in British Columbia, Canada. An integrated analysis revealed that digitization of health and community care has intended positive and unintended negative consequences. Based on the analysis, we suggest five areas of improvement for equity in care: building on the momentum of technology advantages; education and digital literacy; information management and security; development of policy and regulatory frameworks; and the future of digital health and community care. This article sheds light on how health practitioners and leaders can work to enhance equity in care experiences amid the changing digital landscape.