Provider investment needed to close digital divide


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There’s a digital divide occurring in healthcare. This divide can refer to a gap between patient groups that have access to digital health technologies and those that don’t. It can also refer to the growing gap between healthcare organizations that are digitally mature or digitally nascent, and it’s on this last point that Renee Broadbent and her team are attempting to affect change.
Broadbent is vice president of information technology at SoNE Health, and along with Chartis Group Principal Bret Anderson, will present a session called “Unlocking Digital Transformation for Equity and Value-Based Care” on Tuesday, March 4 at 2 p.m. in the Venetian, Room 3104 at the HIMSS25 Global Conference in Las Vegas.
Broadbent cited the 2024 Digital Health survey indicating that most health systems are playing catch-up to the front-runners when it comes to digital capabilities. And the gap is widening, with 70% of systems still in the experimentation/planning phases.
Closing that gap is important not just for health systems, but for the patients as well, said Broadbent.
“While it’s important to ensure that patients have equitable access to digital tools like smart phones, broadband connections, etc., it’s also important to ensure that there are available digital access points offered to them by providers,” she said, “particularly for patients that rely on digital connection points to bridge geographic divides that are especially relevant to rural or physically disabled patient groups.”
Closing the digital divide among patients, she said, requires investment from both providers and broader public health organizations to support basic digital connection points for patient groups that don’t currently have the resources to procure them on their own.
This is happening largely among the health systems that have a big book of value-based contracts; they see such investments as prudent ways to help manage care costs over a continuum, said Broadbent.
Closing the digital divide among providers, meanwhile, should focus on elevating the smaller and more resource-strapped entities with access to broader digital networks like electronic health records and health information exchanges. These often provide a strong ROI on limited investment dollars, said Broadbent.
“Ensuring that those investments are directly tied to strategic imperatives, like driving up patient access and loyalty, is also key to making those investments fund future digital investments in building out a broader ecosystem for patients to connect with,” she said.
In their session, Broadbent and Anderson will review how SoNE Health, an ACO and Clinically Integrated Network in Connecticut, partnered with Chartis over a six-month period to develop a digital strategy for the organization.
The approach that SoNE used to develop the digital strategy can be scaled to any organization, said Broadbent.
“As an example, when we started, we were half-owned by doctors and half by a health system,” she said. ” Over time, we became a physician-owned organization and have adapted our strategy, while still sticking to our core findings and approach.
“We hope the attendees will come away with a better understanding of digital health’s unique role in advancing both equity and value-based care goals for provider organizations,” she said.
Renee Broadbent of SoNE Health and Bret Anderson of the Chartis Group will present “Unlocking Digital Transformation for Equity and Value-Based Care” on Tuesday, March 4 at 2 p.m. in the Venetian, Room 3104, at the HIMSS25 Global Conference in Las Vegas.
Jeff Lagasse is editor of Healthcare Finance News.
Email: jlagasse@himss.org
Healthcare Finance News is a HIMSS Media publication.