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PERSPECTIVE article

Front. Public Health
Sec. Life-Course Epidemiology and Social Inequalities in Health
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1401950
This article is part of the Research Topic Examining Upstream to Understand Downstream: Use of Telehealth and Other Health Equity Measures for Addressing Health Disparities View all 6 articles

Enhancing Healthcare Accessibility through Telehealth for Justice Impacted Individuals

Provisionally accepted
Karmen S. Williams Karmen S. Williams 1*Marianna J. Singh Marianna J. Singh 1Johanna Elumn Johanna Elumn 2Megan Threats Megan Threats 3Yongjie Sha Yongjie Sha 3Kevin Wiley Kevin Wiley 4Terika McCall Terika McCall 5Karen Wang Karen Wang 2Bria Massey Bria Massey 6Mary L. Peng Mary L. Peng 7
  • 1 Graduate School of Public Health & Health Policy, City University of New York, New York, United States
  • 2 School of Medicine, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, United States
  • 3 School of Information, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States
  • 4 College of Health Professions, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, South Carolina, United States
  • 5 Department of Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, United States
  • 6 Center for Population Health Information Technology, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, United States
  • 7 Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Telehealth is a great tool that makes accessing healthcare easier for those incarcerated and can help with reentry into the general society. Justice impacted individuals face many hardships including adverse health outcomes which can be mitigated through access to telehealth services and providers. During the federally recognized Covid-19 pandemic the need for accessible healthcare was exacerbated and telehealth use surged. While access to telehealth should be considered a necessity, there are many challenges and barriers for justice impacted individuals to be able to utilize this service. This perspective examines aspects of accessibility, pandemic, policy, digital tools, and ethical and social considerations of telehealth in correctional facilities. Carceral facilities should continue to innovate and invest in telehealth to revolutionize healthcare delivery, improve health outcomes, and promote positive rehabilitation for justice impacted individuals.

    Keywords: Telehealth1, accessibility2, justice impacted individuals3, prison health4, Medicaid5, digital technology6

    Received: 16 Mar 2024; Accepted: 19 Jun 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Williams, Singh, Elumn, Threats, Sha, Wiley, McCall, Wang, Massey and Peng. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Karmen S. Williams, Graduate School of Public Health & Health Policy, City University of New York, New York, United States

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.