What is it about?
This study aimed to identify factors association with digital exclusion in the covid virtual ward population. Digital exclusion refers to the barriers preventing effective use of digital technology, which is of interest to healthcare providers given the move towards virtual clinics and remote monitoring in outpatient settings, including virtual wards. Patients discharged from the covid virtual ward of a North West London teaching hospital were asked to give their feedback on their experience. Four major themes drove digital exclusion in this group: language barriers, access, inadequate information/training, and poor IT skills.
Featured Image
Photo by Sergey Zolkin on Unsplash
Why is it important?
Outpatient monitoring increased dramatically during the pandemic and therefore digital exclusion is of increasing importance in healthcare to ensure future healthcare inequality is minimised.
Perspectives
We suggest that incorporating additional languages and improving hospital-setting demonstration and information provision to patients prior to discharge are key to protect groups vulnerable to digital exclusion.
Rosanna Fox
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Lessons learnt for digital inclusion in underserved communities from implementing a covid virtual ward, PLOS Digital Health, November 2022, PLOS,
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pdig.0000146.
You can read the full text:
Resources
Contributors
The following have contributed to this page
