HITEQ Resources & Events

Lack of Internet and broadband access prevents some patients from using telehealth and other technology that can support their own health care and getting accurate health care information. In one 2020 study, 42 million Americans lacked adequate access to broadband (high speed internet). As of 2019, about one in five people did not have smartphones, and among low income people nearly one third do not have a smartphone. Rates of computer ownership are not much better. Those patients who do have access to the technology may or may not have the capacity and willingness to use it, depending on past experiences. Some patients aren't comfortable with technology, while others don't trust it or believe that virtual care is sub-par, despite growing evidence of its benefits. This culminates in a clear digital divide that can hinder the ability for patients to fully engage in their care or take advantage of things like remote
patient monitoring, telehealth, mHealth, or patient portal.
This resource provides an overview and some tips for assessing a patient's ability to engage with technology for virtual care, and and interventions that can be used to bridge gaps that are uncovered.

Food insecurity has doubled since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, and has tripled among families with children. Not having enough access to food is a key contributor to negative health outcomes for adults and children alike, and it is important now more than ever for health centers to identify and support patients who are experiencing food insecurity.
This resource is designed to support health center efforts to identify and assist patients who are experiencing food insecurity. It outlines key considerations around integrating social determinants of health (SDoH)-related screening and intervention into the electronic health record (EHR) workflow, highlights standardized screening tools and data elements to monitor the prevalence of food insecurity among patients, and describes several strategies to meet food-related needs. 

In March 2019, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) issued a Proposed Rule, 21st Century Cures Act: Interoperability, Information Blocking, and the ONC Health IT Certification Program. ONC released a final rule in March 2020, published in the Federal Register on May 1, 2020. The Final Rule on Information Blocking prohibits actors from blocking the exchange of electronic health information and seeks to increase the ease and choices available for patients to access their data. 

While there are thousands of consumer health applications (health apps), which run on smartphones, watches, tablets, and other mobile devices, there is currently no central government agency that provides certification or guidance on consumer-based health apps. View this HITEQ Highlights webinar to learn more about a new tool, the Health App Analyzer, designed to assist health care providers, patients, and consumers in determining whether a given consumer health app provides appropriate health information, guidance, and related services. The Health App Analyzer is a step-by-step decision tree that determines whether a particular health app is the best fit for a specific patient or a health center's patient population.

Last fall, the HITEQ Center published an inventory describing many software tools that facilitate electronic patient engagement (EPE). The inventory detailed feedback from health center users of the EPE tools as well as information from the vendor about features and integration. As the health center workload has expanded to accommodate COVID-19 vaccination, the opportunity of EPE tools to address the needs of both health center and patients in this moment became apparent. HITEQ contacted the vendors included in the original inventory to gather supplemental information on how their products can be leveraged to support COVID-19 vaccine communication and distribution. Four EPE vendors responded, and those responses are outlined herein.