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Health portals

5 July, 2024

When you think about the relationship between technology and health, images of high-tech diagnostic tools or perhaps the impact of doom scrolling on mood spring to mind. But one less often considered aspect is what being able to access technology in the first place does for your health.

 

A recent report from Promising Trouble has taken a broad look at the two-way relationship between digital inclusion, and the social, cultural, political, environmental and economic factors that together make up health and wellbeing. From cashless payments and digital challenger banks to WhatsApp groups, dating apps and “digital-by-default” public services, our lives are increasingly reliant on technology, and this is increasingly taken for granted.

 

Across a range of areas such as education, food and housing, the research-based report shows how a lack of digital access impacts wellbeing and can create a vicious cycle where the impact on economic, social and cultural resources can in turn limit access to digital technologies. And it shows how this not only affects individuals, but the communities and total population as local services are under increasing pressure and the individuals are held back.

 

The report calls for governments to do two things to tackle this: ensuring firstly that devices and connectivity are accessible and affordable to all, and secondly, that all essential services across the public and private sectors remain accessible for those that are digitally excluded. But it’s an important call to businesses too – are your goods and services genuinely accessible to those that need them, and what can you do to support people’s wellbeing through digital access?

By Patrick Bapty