Disparity In Access To Healthcare Analysis

Disparity in access to healthcare is a worldwide problem widely recognized by the United Nations (1). According to the World Health Organization in 2013 health service coverage varied dramatically across continents and income groups. For example while in Africa and Southeast Asia around 50% of women attend to at least 4 antenatal care visits (Millennium Developmental Goal 5), in the Americas and European region it is around 80%. More noticeably this disparity occurs between income group, for the low income just 37% attend to > 4 visits compared to 99% for the high income (2). However this problem even persists in high-developed areas as United States and European Union, and nowadays is it known to be caused by medical and social determinants (3,4)(5,6).

In order to reduce this inequalities eHealth has been proposed as an approach with the potential to deliver healthcare to all populations (7–10). However as shown by Oh et al. 2005 (11) there is not a single definition, throughout this essay eHealth will be defined as Gustafson & Wyatt, 2005 propose “use of the internet or other electronic media to disseminate health related information or services” (12). In my view eHealth has the capacity to increase healthcare provision, however it is not the panacea that some have described as it has several limitations.

How will e-Health reduce disparities in healthcare provision? According to Lewis et al. 2012 (13) programmes currently have the aims of: extending geographic access in order to overcome the distance between physicians and patient (42%); facilitate communication between health providers and patients for example by encouraging patient compliance (31%); improving diagnosis and treatment as health workers in remote areas can as...

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...tions, and they felt disappointed because when most of the times their recommendations were not taking into account their prescriptions due to several reasons, like lack of medicines in the village (21).

Finally, eHealth is a powerful tool for reducing disparities in healthcare access and provision as it was shown in the above examples. Nonetheless great challenges remained to be addressed, especially those regarding its long-term sustainability, in order for it to become a massive and widespread service. If countries really commit to the implementation of the 28 resolution of the 58th World Health Organization Assembly about eHealth (22) it would only be a matter of time for healthcare access indicators to increase in a uniform and sustainable fashion not only low-income countries but in all countries in the world, otherwise eHealth would possible be forgotten.