The Role of mHealth for Equitable Access to Healthcare for Rural Residents

Abstract

While Mobile Health (mHealth), and medical applications offer the possibility of pervasive and improved delivery of healthcare services, their adoption in rural communities remains limited. Following an overview of the potential of mHealth applications to support improved access to equitable healthcare by rural residents, this paper offers an analysis of perceptions held by rural residents relating to their use technologies in a rural Midwestern community. Using data from a sample of 1,667 rural residents, a descriptive statistics analysis of rural residents’ use of mobile applications to support equitable access to healthcare is carried out. The findings suggest that mHealth applications can support equitable access to healthcare for rural residents by offering specific functionalities for communicating with providers, searching for health information and tools for addressing common symptoms. The contribution of this paper is in offering key concepts relating to equitable healthcare provision through the use of internet enabled mobile devices