Using Health Information Technology to Reduce Health Care Disparities

Racial disparities in health care delivery and patient outcomes exist and persist unabatedly in the health care system in the United States. One potentially modifiable mechanism for disparities attributed to health care is the quality of care provided to minorities. Minorities tend to receive lower-quality health care even when insurance status and income are controlled. Black patients receive less intensive hospital care, for example, receiving fewer cardiac procedures, lung resections for cancer, and kidney and bone marrow transplants. Partially because of geography, minority patients also tend to seek care at a relatively small number of lower-performing institutions and thus are disproportionately affected by suboptimal quality of care. Opportunities to identify and address inequalities in the quality of care for minority patients are emerging via the ongoing implementation and expansion of health information technology (HIT) in the United States.