Department of Internal Medicine, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA (A.V., A.B., A.C.).
LA County Department of Health Services, Los Angeles, CA (A.T., A.A.).
Stroke. 2022 Mar;53(3):689-697. doi: 10.1161/STROKEAHA.121.035307. Epub 2022 Feb 7.
Digital health has long been championed as a means to expanding access to health care. Now that the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated many health systems' integration of digital tools for care, digital health may provide a path towards more accessible stroke prevention and treatment, particularly for historically disadvantaged patient populations. Stroke management is composed of multiple time points where digital health innovations have the potential to augment health access and treatment: from primary prevention, to the time-sensitive detection of ischemic stroke, administration of thrombolytic agents and consideration for endovascular interventions, to appropriate post-acute care, rehabilitation, and lifelong secondary stroke prevention-stroke care relies on a multidisciplinary and standardized approach. However, as we discuss pointedly in this Focused Update, underrepresented individuals face multilevel digital health disparities that potentially diminish the benefits of these digital advances. As such, these multilevel needs must be discussed and accounted for as health systems seek to integrate innovative and equitable digital health solutions towards stroke care.
数字健康长期以来一直被视为扩大医疗保健服务可及性的一种手段。如今,COVID-19 大流行加速了许多卫生系统整合数字工具进行护理,数字健康可能为更方便地预防和治疗中风提供了一条途径,特别是对于历史上处于不利地位的患者群体。中风管理由多个时间点组成,数字健康创新有可能增加获得医疗保健和治疗的机会:从初级预防,到对缺血性中风的时间敏感检测,施用溶栓药物并考虑血管内介入治疗,到适当的急性后护理、康复和终身二级中风预防——中风护理依赖于多学科和标准化的方法。然而,正如我们在本重点更新中明确讨论的那样,代表性不足的个人面临多层次的数字健康差距,这可能会降低这些数字进步的好处。因此,随着卫生系统寻求整合创新和公平的数字健康解决方案以实现中风护理,这些多层次的需求必须加以讨论和考虑。