New report highlights the impact of broadband access on health and related disparities

A recent report, Bridging the Broadband Health Gap: How High-Speed Internet Access is a ‘Super’ Social Determinant of Health,  shines light on the importance of high-speed internet access for health outcomes, access to care and quality of care, and suggests strategies to address related health disparities. 

The report, written by authors from the Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation of Harvard Law School with funding by the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society, identifies broadband-enabled healthcare services that are particularly important in improving access to care and health outcomes, including:

• Remote patient monitoring for managing health conditions
• Expanded access to health information to help patients make informed decisions about their health
• Telepharmacy services such as remote prescription counseling, remote dispensing, adjusting or discontinuing medications, approving refills, and initiating alternative medications
• Home healthcare and hospital-at-home services.

The report notes prior findings of striking disparities in health outcomes, access to care and quality of care between “connected” and “digitally isolated” communities, refers to high-speed internet access as a “super” social determinant of health, and points out that access to broadband impacts all other social determinants of health, including education, neighborhood, healthcare access and quality, social and community context, and economic stability.

The authors lay out a collaboration framework for broadband and healthcare stakeholders (such as broadband and healthcare experts, policymakers, advocates, researchers, scholars, internet service providers, and healthcare providers) to reduce the broadband health gap and maximize the impact of their efforts to increase access to critical services and care, including action steps to:

• Screen for broadband access and digital literacy along with other social determinants of health to more effectively address individual needs
• Help patients get broadband access
• Collaborate with community anchor institutions to bridge the broadband health gap by leveraging resources to address gaps in broadband access
• Establish broadband-healthcare working groups to communicate and collaborate more effectively among stakeholders.

The report cites to a number of prior studies and publications, and is expected to be the first in a three part series on Bridging the Broadband Health Gap.