Inclusive innovation in telehealth

Kimberly Noel; Brooke Ellison

doi:10.1038/s41746-020-0296-5

Inclusive innovation in telehealth

NPJ Digit Med. 2020 Jun 25:3:89. doi: 10.1038/s41746-020-0296-5. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Kimberly Noel¹, Brooke Ellison²

Affiliations

¹ Stony Brook Renaissance School of Medicine, Stony Brook University Hospital, 101 Nicolls Rd, Stony Brook, NY United States.
² Stony Brook School of Health Technology and Management, Stony Brook University Hospital, 101 Nicolls Rd, Stony Brook, NY United States.

Abstract

It has been 30 years since the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act and technological development has drastically changed the future for those with disabilities. As healthcare evolves toward promoting telehealth and patient-centered care, leaders must embrace persons with disabilities and caregivers as valued partners in design and implementation, not as passive "end-users". We call for a new era of inclusive innovation, a term proposed in this publication to describe accessible technological design for all. The next 30 years of the ADA leading to year 2050, should reflect a new era of access, whereby digital health surmounts geographic, social, and economic barriers toward an inclusive virtual society.

Keywords: Medical ethics; Research management.