Health Equity - Why Is It Important?
Defined.
According to the CDC, “Health Equity is achieved when every person has the opportunity to attain his or her full health potential and no one is disadvantaged from achieving this potential because of social position or other socially determined circumstances. Health inequities are reflected in differences in length of life; quality of life; rates of disease, disability, and death; severity of disease; and access to treatment.”
At Virtual TelaCare, our work is to provide access to quality health care using digital technology to “bridge the gap”. We focus on partnering with physicians and care providers who reflect the communities we serve.
Chronic Disease and
People of Color.
People of color face higher rates of diabetes, obesity, stroke, heart disease, and cancer than whites. In the case of diabetes, the risk of being diagnosed is 77 percent higher for African Americans and 66 percent higher among Hispanics, than for whites. Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders are at twice the risk of developing diabetes than the population overall.
In addition to higher rates of chronic illness, lower wages and insufficient insurance coverage among people of color greatly limits their access to treatment and often forces them to work while ill.
Personalized digital technology provides a great opportunity to manage multiple chronic diseases and improve the declining outcomes for lifestyle-related diseases. Building on an enterprise telehealth platform that integrates with other apps and technologies, Virtual TelaCare and our network of clinical partners, is better able to support those suffering from chronic disease with a virtual continuity of care program to help manage wellness and episodes of care from the hospital to the home.