HIMSS Conference Preview: Deepti Pandita on Designing for Equity

• Speaker: Deepti Pandita, CMIO and Associate Professor, Department of Medicine at University of California Irvine Health
• Session Title: Addressing Digital Disparities as a Part of Digital Transformation (presented under the auspices of the HIMSS/AMDIS Physician Informatics session)
• Day/Time/Location: Monday, March 11 • 10:30 AM – 11:15 AM Eastern Time; W230A

Healthcare systems prioritize digital transformation to enhance service delivery. By adopting advanced technologies, they aim to revolutionize healthcare management and accessibility. It’s vital to address digital disparities, which could cause digital inequity if technological access based on geography, age, or socioeconomic factors are not included when designing these solutions. Ensuring digital literacy and designing for equity is essential; without them, the digital divide may grow.

The session will explore how to approach transformation correctly to foster digital equity. We have an engaging panel of speakers with backgrounds in health disparities research, population health and in user-centered design for IT. They will present their views on how to ensure digital equity is front and center when systems are embarking on a digital transformation journey.

The best advice when tackling this topic is to “design for Equity” – understand who the end user is and then enable workflows and technology solutions that engage that end user in a manner that allows them to be educated and engaged in the process; or else the digital solution is likely to either fail or broaden the digital divide. If we do not approach this in the right manner, the risk of widening the health care gaps for certain populations will lead to the inability to build healthy communities.