Pitt Pediatrics congratulates Kristin Ray, MD, MS, FAAP, for her recent publication in the Journal of General Internal Medicine tilted “Access to What for Whom? How Care Delivery Innovations Impact Health Equity.” 
Telehealth/telemedicine became an integral piece of technology during the COVID-19 pandemic for physicians and patients alike. It was an easy and effective way to see and talk to physicians, especially for elderly and high-risk patients. However, just because this made visits to the doctor easier for some, it became harder for others and introduced new inequities to the system that were not being researched.
“With new innovation must come commitment to evaluate impact on marginalized groups and to restructure systems that obstruct people from health and healthcare,” says Ray and team in their publication. 
With the need to learn more about where the inequity was and who it impacted, the team used models to understand the ‘series of interactions between people and care delivery systems embedded within a larger sociopolitical structure that disproportionately oppress certain populations.’ From there, they use the model to answer specific questions, to access the impact of the innovations of telemedicine on the provision of equitable care and to inform actions to repair, restructure, remediate and remove systems of oppression to achieve health equity.