Health Equity SIG

There is incredible public health potential for developing digital health services. Such services can be easily integrated into people’s lives, emphasizing its potential to extend reach, maximize impact, and overcome health inequities. However, underserved and marginalized communities have not been well represented in the digital health literature to date, and thus, many digital health services have not been designed to meet the needs of individuals who would benefit most from increased access to healthcare. This proposal to form a new SIG within SDMH arises out of an interest in centering populations who most experience health disparities, but have not been well-served by, or included in design and testing of, digital behavioral health interventions to date (e.g., youth and elders, women, BIPOC, LGBTQ, rural communities) and/or populations who are otherwise not reached by digital behavioral health interventions. Our vision for centering health equity in digital behavioral health involves the meaningful inclusion of communities and end-users throughout the process of intervention conceptualization, development, testing, implementation, and dissemination, and advocating for the needs of these communities and users with payers and policymakers.

SIG Leadership: Kathryn Macapagal, PhD, Ashley Knapp, PhD (Co-Chairs), Madison McCall, MA (Student Chair)