The COVID-19 pandemic has triggered a significant increase in the adoption of virtual care by Canadian patients; consumer adoption went from 10-15% in 2019 to more than 60% in April 2020 (Canada Health Infoway & Léger, COVID-19 tracking). Virtual care can help to address access barriers. At the same time, it has the potential to exacerbate existing health inequalities. Thereby, it is important to investigate the access and use of digital health technologies by vulnerable, racialized, and marginalized communities in order to identify barriers that can lead to health inequities. In this session, we will be exploring the inequalities in the access to digitally enabled health services across several socio-demographic, socio-economic and health-related factors. These factors include gender, age, race and ethnicity, employment status and household income, access to a family doctor, health status, etc. In addition, we will be looking into the contributing factors to these digital health inequalities.
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