What We’re Reading – Use of Technology Urged to Combat Racial, Ethnic Disparities in Health Care

The authors of the article, “Bridging the Digital Divide in Health Care: The Role of Health Information Technology in Addressing Racial and Ethnic Disparities,” contend that Health Information Technology (HIT) can be successful in eliminating health care disparities experienced by minority patients.  The authors suggest that health care organizations take the following steps:

• Automate and standardize the collection of race/ethnicity and language data.
• Prioritize use of the data for indentifying disparities and tailoring quality improvement efforts.
• Focus HIT efforts to address fragmented care delivery for racial/ethnic minorities and limited-English-proficiency patients.
• Develop focused computerized clinical decision support systems in clinical areas with significant health disparities.
• Include input from racial/ethnic minorities and those with limited English proficiency in developing patient HIT tools.