Digital Health Equity: Bridging the Gap for Elderly People and People with Disabilities

Dear Colleagues,

The rapid and progressive spread of Telemedicine, E-Health and other digital technologies in the healthcare field could offer opportunities to promote healthcare equity, improving access, quality and personalization of healthcare for all people and supporting healthcare potential. However, not taking into account all the social and digital determinants of health could have the negative and unintended effect of limiting health equity and creating forms of further inequity. Recent papers highlight the risk of a “digital paradox”, in which people who could benefit most from the effects of progressive digitalisation in the healthcare field may be excluded from the benefits of digital health if all the social and digital determinants of health are not adequately considered. In this regard, there is an even higher risk for elderly people and people with disabilities. This Special Issue aims to discuss strategies to avoid this risk and promote digital health equity. Furthermore, this Special Issue aims to discuss global, complex frameworks, composed of numerous levels that interact with each other, on the basis of which to design and implement interventions aimed at promoting health potential and digital health equity. Finally, this Special Issue aims to discuss and outline some general recommendations at multiple levels, underlining the importance of measures that aim to promote inclusion  and equity in  digital healthcare innovation, enhancing the centrality of people and promoting social inclusion at a global level.

In this Special Issue, we invite scholars to discuss those topics and to share their experiences in the field, with a multidisciplinary/transdisciplinary approach. We welcome research, scoping reviews, systematic reviews and/or meta-analyses.

You may choose our Joint Special Issue in Geriatrics.

Dr. Donatella Rita Petretto
Dr. Roberto Pili
Dr. Luca Gaviano
Guest Editors

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