Development and Validation of a Platform to Assess and Improve Barriers to Health for Digitally Underserved Populations

Project SummaryInflammatory bowel diseaseIBDis a chronic disabling disease that leads to poor quality of life among otherwise young healthy adultsUnderserved and minority populations bear a higher disease burden with more hospitalizations and less use of gastroenterology specialty care and of maintenance medications to prevent flaresThe goal of this proposalDevelopment and Validation of a Platform to Assess and Improve Barriers to Health for Digitally Underserved Populations andquotis to build features on a unique Digital Prescribing Platform that will allow patient centered reporting of social determinants of healthSDoHand digital barriers to care with an aim to address health disparities in patients with IBDAIM IDevelop SDoH and digital disparities module to augment existing Remote Monitoring Platform and enable reporting of barriers at the individual patientprovider and practice levels to determine disparities in symptomscare and self managementHypothesisUsing customized digital toolspatients will provide information about their SDoH and digital connectivitydigital skills and disease management barriers that can be summarized for providers at the level of the individual patientthe provider and the health system AIM IIPilot test the SDoH and digital disparities moduleWe will assess feasibilityusability and adoption of the newly developed module amongEnglish and Spanish speaking patients with IBDHypothesisAbility to prescribe language specific module through Smartphonetext messages or interactive voice responseIVRwill maximize adoption in underserved communitiesAnticipated ImpactDevelopment of SDoH and digital disparities module will allow us to prescribe digital medicine to population that needs it the most and help bridge digital gap through andquot digital inclusionandquotlens Project NarrativeUnderserved and minority populations bear a higher disease burden in chronic diseaseshoweverpatients who might benefit most from digital resources may be least able to access themAssessing social determinants of health and digital barriers to care through tailored strategy of SmartphoneText messages or Interactive Voice Response has potential to help bridge digital gap through a andquot digital inclusionandquotlensThis novel approach has relevance across diseases and populations