Digital Divide Limits Telehealth Use in Rural Areas

A study from the University of Cincinnati (UC) found that although the rise in technology use benefits many aspects of healthcare delivery, telehealth access disparities will likely continue in rural areas due to limited resources and weaker internet access.

Although telehealth has the potential to benefit those that use it, there is a prerequisite for its use that involves adequate access to technology and the internet.

To gain insight into trends in telehealth access across the country, UC researchers conducted a county-level data visualization and spatial analysis that determined the relationship between digital disparities and healthcare in the US.

“The point is telehealth is not going to be useful to everybody. It will be extremely useful to people who already have good access to health care, but it's not going to be very useful to those who don't,” said Diego Cuadros, PhD, study author, epidemiologist, and assistant professor at the UC College of Arts and Sciences, in a press release.

After reviewing trends in high-speed internet coverage in the US, the researchers found that access was highly inconsistent across the country.

“What was surprising was to see the strong correlation between the lack of broadband access and the socioeconomic and health care vulnerability of some regions,” said Claudia Moreno, PhD, an assistant professor of physiology and biophysics at the University of Washington, in the press release. “This association suggests that broadband coverage can act as an institutionalized inequity that needs to be addressed to help vulnerable communities.”

The federal government has acknowledged this issue. Earlier in March, the Biden Administration announced a $73 million investment in outreach grants to provide more Americans with affordable internet. The reason for this was largely due to healthcare access issues that resulted from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Further, previous research has indicated that rural residents often do not benefit from telehealth. 

Research published in the American Journal of Preventative Medicine (AJPM) in September 2022 found that patients living in rural areas had lower telehealth engagement rates compared to urban residents, indicating the need for geographic targeting.

Researchers noted that prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a limited correlation between visit type and patient residence. However, following the start of the pandemic, the rate at which telehealth use increased between rural and urban populations was different.

This finding highlighted the need for additional resources and attention directed toward those living in rural areas.

There have, however, been efforts to assist rural communities in obtaining telehealth services.

In September 2022, Equum Medical began a partnership with the National Rural Health Association (NRHA) to add telehealth resources to healthcare delivery.

Equum Medical aims to assist rural hospitals in filling specialty care gaps through its national network of physicians and virtual care services. After being selected by the NRHA as a pipeline partner, Equum noted its plans to extend several telehealth services related to early intervention, intensivist-led care, and remote observation services to members of the NRHA.