We have witnessed multiple digital health inequities in the past year, from disparities in access to health care video visits to challenges in scheduling COVID-19 vaccination online. It is clear that we need digital health transformation that is focused on reducing these gaps.
During the past 18 months, we—health care researchers with expertise in health technology and implementation science—launched a digital health incubator at University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). Called UCSF S.O.L.V.E. Health Tech, the incubator is focused explicitly on health equity; it connects public health and medical expertise with digital health companies to adapt, test, and evaluate products to better reach and meet the needs of diverse populations.
The incubator is rooted in our work in the public health care delivery system in San Francisco. Specifically, UCSF S.O.L.V.E. Health Tech focuses on ensuring that digital health tools work better for individuals with high medical and social needs who face structural barriers to health and health care, such as individuals from racial/ethnic minority groups and those facing poverty or other socioeconomic challenges in the US. These are the patients served in our delivery system at the San Francisco Health Network, and they are not a small segment of the health care landscape in the United States, given the growing linguistic and racial/ethnic diversity of the US and the substantial market share of Medicaid nationwide (for example, Medicaid provides insurance for one-third of all Californians).
Although there is much more work to be done, we have benefited from our collaborations with digital health companies, and we believe there are multiple ways that academic/business partnerships in the digital health space can achieve even greater health impact. Our lessons learned are broad, but they have the potential to make true impact on equity in digital health. (author introduction)