Digital health systems and inequities: exploring climate and environmental impacts

TL;DR

This paper argues that digital health must prioritize equity when addressing climate and environmental issues to avoid worsening existing inequalities.

Contribution

The paper introduces a framework for integrating equity into digital health solutions addressing climate and environmental challenges.

Findings

Digital health's shift to climate issues risks amplifying inequities if equity is not prioritized.

Four case examples highlight the intersection of digital health, climate, and inequity.

The paper calls for equity-focused planning in digital health systems addressing environmental challenges.

Abstract

The digital health community has taken an increased interest in climate and environmental issues. At the same time, and even though equity considerations have been central to digital health for decades, equity-focused approaches to climate and the environment have been less considered. In this commentary, we emphasize the need for equity to remain central to digital health as it shifts to address climate and environment-related challenges. We provided four case examples: electronic waste, early warning systems, digital systems infrastructure vulnerability and artificial intelligence resource use, to demonstrate the climate/environment digital health inequity nexus. We stress that, in not attending to this relationship, the digital transition may amplify rather than reduce inequities associated with climate and environmental challenges. We include a call to action for those in the digital health community to include equity considerations in the planning and designing of digital health solutions and systems aimed at addressing such climate and environmental challenges and beyond.

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