• Kelly A Hirko, Jean M Kerver, Sabrina Ford, Chelsea Szafranski, John Beckett, Chris Kitchen, and Andrea L Wendling.
• Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, College of Human Medicine, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, USA.
• J Am Med Inform Assoc. 2020 Nov 1; 27 (11): 1816-1818.

AbstractTelehealth programs have long held promise for addressing rural health disparities perpetuated by inadequate healthcare access. The COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) pandemic and accompanying social distancing measures have hastened the implementation of telehealth programs in hospital systems around the globe. Here, we provide specific examples of telehealth efforts that have been implemented in a large rural healthcare system in response to the pandemic, and further describe how the massive shift to telehealth and reliance on virtual connections in these times of social isolation may impact rural health disparities for those without access to necessary broadband to deploy digital technologies. Finally, we provide recommendations for researchers and policymakers to ensure that telehealth initiatives do not amplify existing health disparities experienced by those living in rural communities.© The Author(s) 2020. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Medical Informatics Association. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

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