Digital Equity in the Shadow of Digital Health with john a. powell and Abner Mason

Virtual health care boomed in the COVID-19 pandemic, and it’s undoubtedly a huge part of the future of medicine. But is that good news for everyone? Underserved communities are at risk of being left even further behind as the most affordable, timely, convenient care increasingly happens online. Digital care actually has the potential to do the opposite—to improve access, personalize care, and reduce historic health inequities—but only if we design it right, and do so right now.

In this episode of Ahead in Health, host Jodie Lesh talks with professor john a. powell, director of the Othering & Belonging Institute at UC Berkeley, and Abner Mason, CEO of the patient engagement platform SameSky Health. They illuminate the steps needed to make health care inclusive, explaining how to use data to treat patients as individuals, how to design digital care to bridge mistrust, and what it means to truly belong.