Health Inequalities and Availability: Needs and Applications

The limited access to high quality healthcare in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs) creates disparities and challenges. In such nations, health outcomes are inevitably influenced by the scarce geographic distribution of health providers and the often unbearable cost of quality services. Regardless of improvements in global life expectancy and mortality rates due to scientific and medical breakthroughs in the modern world, LMICs do not experience similar progress. To bridge the healthcare gap, a coordinated global effort to transfer medical knowledge to developing countries through the digitalization of medicine, in the form of adopting and implementing electronic health records (EHRs) or telemedicine is imperative. This chapter initially explores how the concepts of healthcare inequality and inequity are exerted and provides examples of how medical digitalization is implemented in LMICs. International and national responses to health inequalities that are impacting digitalization efforts and the role of human rights towards achieving the effective and widespread provision of high-quality healthcare services are also addressed.