How to design equitable digital health tools: A narrative review of design tactics, case studies, and opportunities.
Amy Bucher, Beenish M Chaudhry, Jean W Davis, Katharine Lawrence, Emily Panza, Manal Baqer, Rebecca T Feinstein, Sherecce A Fields, Jennifer Huberty, Deanna M Kaplan, Isabelle S Kusters, Frank T Materia, Susanna Y Park, Maura Kepper
Author Information
Amy Bucher: Behavioral Reinforcement Learning Lab (BReLL), Lirio, Inc., Knoxville, Tennessee, United States of America. ORCID
Beenish M Chaudhry: School of Computing and Informatics, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Lafayette, Louisiana, United States of America.
Jean W Davis: College of Nursing, University of Central Florida, Orlando, Florida, United States of America. ORCID
Katharine Lawrence: Department of Population Health, NYU Grossman School of Medicine, New York, New York, United States of America.
Emily Panza: Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, United States of America. ORCID
Manal Baqer: Neamah Health Consulting, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America. ORCID
Rebecca T Feinstein: AIHealth4All Center for Health Equity using Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, United States of America. ORCID
Sherecce A Fields: Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, United States of America. ORCID
Jennifer Huberty: Fit Minded Inc., Phoenix, Arizona, United States of America.
Deanna M Kaplan: Department of Family and Preventive Medicine, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America. ORCID
Isabelle S Kusters: Department of Clinical, Health, and Applied Sciences, University of Houston-Clear Lake, Houston, Texas, United States of America. ORCID
Frank T Materia: Otolaryngology and Population Health, University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, Kansas, United States of America. ORCID
Susanna Y Park: Radiant Foundation, Salt Lake City, Utah, United States of America. ORCID
Maura Kepper: Prevention Research Center, Brown School, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri, United States of America.
With a renewed focus on health equity in the United States driven by national crises and legislation to improve digital healthcare innovation, there is a need for the designers of digital health tools to take deliberate steps to design for equity in their work. A concrete toolkit of methods to design for health equity is needed to support digital health practitioners in this aim. This narrative review summarizes several health equity frameworks to help digital health practitioners conceptualize the equity dimensions of importance for their work, and then provides design approaches that accommodate an equity focus. Specifically, the Double Diamond Model, the IDEAS framework and toolkit, and community collaboration techniques such as participatory design are explored as mechanisms for practitioners to solicit input from members of underserved groups and better design digital health tools that serve their needs. Each of these design methods requires a deliberate effort by practitioners to infuse health equity into the approach. A series of case studies that use different methods to build in equity considerations are offered to provide examples of how this can be accomplished and demonstrate the range of applications available depending on resources, budget, product maturity, and other factors. We conclude with a call for shared rigor around designing digital health tools that deliver equitable outcomes for members of underserved populations.
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