Telehealth can help address disparities in access to healthcare services and health outcomes. As its utility becomes increasingly evident, so do its challenges regarding serving the needs of vulnerable populations in the United States. Two main areas that remain particularly challenging are differential access of connectivity to the internet and access to quality healthcare services.19 Although 80 percent of all U.S. households have access to the internet, data from the Health Information National Trends Survey suggest that significant disparities in internet access exist by age, sex, race, ethnicity, income, and education.20 Likewise, as noted in AHRQ’s 2018 National Healthcare Quality and Disparities Report,21 while some of the observed disparities have declined over the past two decades, many persist, especially for poor and uninsured populations in all priority areas.21
Results from a recent systematic literature review suggest that satisfaction with the use of eHealth and telehealth tools was generally positive across the various studies examined.22 However, the authors cautioned that the sole reliance on electronic tools to deliver health services may not enhance a patient’s ability to obtain, process, and understand relevant health information. As such, telediagnosis services that only focus on access issues and ignore how individuals in vulnerable populations process and understand the information shared may exacerbate existing health disparities.22
