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Contributions of Municipal Initiatives to Digital Health Equity

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  • Fernando Almeida

    (Polytechnic Higher Institute of Gaya (ISPGAYA) and INESC TEC, 4400-103 Porto, Portugal)

Abstract

Sustainable initiatives play a crucial role in promoting digital health equity by addressing barriers to access and ensuring equitable use of digital health technologies and services. These initiatives may arise in various contexts, including local collaborative networks that emerge in the municipal context. This study aims to identify and characterize the municipal initiatives that have been developed in Portugal to promote digital health equity. It adopts a mixed methods approach to initially quantify the distribution of these projects in the Portuguese territory and, at a later stage, to understand the level of influence of these projects, considering their impact on individual, interpersonal, community, and societal levels. The findings identified 22 municipal sustainable initiatives and concluded that there is a strong relationship between the areas of community and individual influence. The results of this study are relevant to deepening the knowledge of bottom-up innovation in the digital health field and establishing public policies to increase the impact of these projects at the territorial level, the communities involved, and the social objectives addressed, contributing to greater social cohesion.

Suggested Citation

  • Fernando Almeida, 2024. "Contributions of Municipal Initiatives to Digital Health Equity," World, MDPI, vol. 5(4), pages 1-16, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jworld:v:5:y:2024:i:4:p:59-1180:d:1528892
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    References listed on IDEAS

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