The Impact of Telehealth on Health Equity from the Perspective of Large Healthcare Systems during the COVID-19 Pandemic

During this COCA Call, presenters from Kaiser Permanente and the Veteran’s Health Administration will discuss how telehealth has affected health equity in their patient populations before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Topics to discuss include challenges and opportunities related to telehealth implementation. Presenters will share strategies to expand ​access that can reduce disparities and improve culturally responsive care to help achieve health equity within each organization. In addition, presenters from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will share telehealth strategies that incorporate CDC’s frameworks to Addressing Health Equity in Public Health Practice.

If you are unable to attend the live COCA Call, the recording will be available for viewing on the COCA Call webpage a few hours after the live event ends.

Link to More information

• The slide set will be available under “Call Materials” on the COCA Call webpage.
• Free Continuing Education (CE) will be offered for this COCA Call.
• Advanced registration is not required.

Activity-specific Objectives

At the conclusion of the session, the participant will be able to accomplish the following—

• Describe the impact of telehealth on health equity from the perspective of large healthcare systems.
• Describe lessons learned from healthcare systems’ experiences in using telehealth to address health equity before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• List strategies to address health equity in telehealth.
• Discuss CDC’s health equity and telehealth initiatives and recommendations.

COCA Call Objectives

At the conclusion of the session, the participant will be able to accomplish the following—

• Cite background information on the topic covered during the presentation.
• Discuss CDC’s role in the topic covered during the presentation.
• Describe the topic’s implications for clinicians.
• Discuss concerns and/or issues related to preparedness for and/or response to urgent public health threats.
• Promote health improvement, wellness, and disease prevention in cooperation with patients, communities, at-risk populations, and other members of an interprofessional team of health care providers.

Presenters:

Jeffrey Hall, PhD, MSPH, MA, Chief Health Equity Officer, COVID-19 Response

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Edward Lee, MD, Executive Vice President, Information Technology, and Chief Information Officer

The Permanente Federation

Associate Executive Director

The Permanente Medical Group

Matthew Rogers, PA, Clinical Operations Director

Virtual Integrated Multisite Patient Aligned Care Team

Veteran’s Health Administration

Leonie Heyworth, MD, MPH, National Synchronous Telehealth Lead

Office of Connected Care | Telehealth

Veteran’s Health Administration