Minority communities are traditionally underserved by the current healthcare system. However, some experts see the growing adoption of health IT tools like electronic health records as a way to address this problem.
Garth Graham, the deputy assistant secretary for minority health with the Office of Minority Health, a division of the Department of Health and Human Services, told CMIO Magazine that there is currently a lot of work being done between the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT and other agencies to design ways of implementing new technologies.
He said that presents an opportunity to address some of the structural problems that have prevented minorities from accessing care in the past.
"We want to make sure, as we pull together that alignment, that part of the focus continues to be to make sure we bring the benefits of health IT to underserved communities," he told the news source. "We continue to explore the efficacy of different modalities, including telehealth and similar technologies."
The Office of Minority Health says that economic, geographic, linguistic, cultural and healthcare financing issues often prevent these groups from accessing care. Health IT and electronic health records could address some of these problems, such as the geographic and linguistic barriers.