Digital Inclusion as Health Care — Supporting Health Care Equity with Digital-Infrastructure Initiatives
As health care has shifted to increasingly rely on digital tools for patient care, digital inclusion has become critical to promoting health care equity. The recently enacted Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) makes investments that could foster sustainable digital inclusion. Although the law isn’t focused on health care, it addresses long-standing drivers of digital health disparities, presents new opportunities for community-based digital inclusion, and could be a critical lever for improving access to care. We believe it’s important for health care organizations to understand the opportunities the law presents, to advocate for its effective and equitable implementation, and to take advantage of improvements to digital infrastructure (see table).