Digital Health Tools, Telemedicine, and Mobile Health Applications: How They’re Enhancing Population Health

Though our movement into a digital and remote world was accelerated by the COVID-19 Pandemic, it is a movement that has proven to be quite beneficial. We were able to roll out various digital health tools, telemedicine, and mobile health applications that not only better the lives of our patients but also our staff. These tools helped to keep us safe during the pandemic and are now working to ease the burden healthcare can have on people. Patients now have an often quicker and easier way to access healthcare and their care providers, often without ever leaving the home, and in turn, providers have a much easier time reaching their patients. However, in order for this technology to truly work to improve the lives of our patients and providers, it must be accessible. Today we are going to focus on these three technologies to look at their impact on population health management and the challenges that are in place of it being accessible.

We reached out to our brilliant Healthcare IT Today Community with the question – how is the integration of digital health tools, telemedicine, and mobile health applications contributing to the enhancement of population health management, and what challenges exist in ensuring equitable access to these technologies across diverse communities? The following is what they had to share.

Karen Iapoce, Vice President, Government Programs at ZeOmega
The integration of digital health tools, telemedicine, and mobile health applications is greatly advancing population health management by improving access to care, enabling real-time health monitoring, and offering personalized treatment plans. These technologies facilitate consultations for those in remote areas, provide continuous monitoring for early intervention, and enhance health education through digital resources. However, challenges remain, such as the digital divide, varying levels of health literacy, privacy concerns, and the cost of technology, which can exacerbate health inequities. Addressing these issues requires collaborative efforts from policymakers, healthcare providers, and technology developers to ensure equitable access to these beneficial tools.

Jennifer Goldsmith, President at Tendo
When effectively deployed, digital health tools offer new ways to improve population health by engaging patients in their own care. Mobile health technologies, such as nudges, self-scheduling, and asynchronous communication, empower patients to modify their behaviors. Telemedicine expands access to healthcare, providing patients with convenient options for education and clinical interventions. Together, these tools can significantly enhance population health outcomes. However, challenges remain, including the digital divide, which can limit access in communities with high social determinants of health. While mobile technologies are increasingly widespread, cultural context, user experience, and accessibility tools are crucial to ensuring equitable adoption across diverse populations.

Libby Sagara, Managing Director at BluePath Health
Individuals relying on Medicaid and those who are uninsured find it nearly impossible to access specialty care in a timely manner. This problem is common across both rural and urban settings; across the nation; there are simply not enough specialists to address patients’ needs. Telemedicine, whether it be telephonic, live video or asynchronous, presents options for individuals whose access is limited by their insurance coverage, job and family commitments, or long distances to care. Electronic consult (asynchronous consultations between primary care providers and specialists) allows patients to remain with their trusted providers — those who speak their languages and live in their communities — while receiving advice from remote providers. Telemedicine innovations must meet patients where they are.

David Werry, Co-Founder, President, and COO at Well
Healthcare is becoming increasingly digital. From telehealth video calls to apps that remind you to take your meds, technology is making healthcare more accessible than ever. But here’s the thing, not everyone has equal access to these tools. Some folks might not have a smartphone, or maybe they live in an area with spotty internet. Others might find the technology confusing or worry about their privacy. So while these digital tools are fantastic, there’s still work to be done to make sure everyone can benefit from them. The goal is to create something that’s easy to use and works for everyone, and could transform how people manage their health.

Hilary Hatch, Clinical Psychologist and Chief Clinical Officer at Phreesia
Preventive care, chronic disease management, and adherence are the keys to keeping a population as healthy as possible. Most often, the responsibility of communicating about vaccines, routine screenings, and medication regimens falls to providers, who are already stretched thin. One study shows that primary care providers would need 27 hours to give each patient comprehensive preventive care. That’s where technology comes in. Simple digital tools, like a reminder about getting tested for diseases you may be at risk for, or screenings you are due for, right before going in for a doctor’s appointment, can make a huge difference. Research supports this—when people receive tailored healthcare messages, they’re more likely to be proactive about getting the care they need.

Ultimately, to move the needle on population health, we need every single patient to be an active partner in their care. Technology makes this possible at scale. We don’t have to rely on providers and staff to make every outreach call; digital tools can help them use their limited time more efficiently. We can leverage technology so that all patients, especially those who belong to historically underserved groups, receive the resources and support they need to attain the best possible health outcomes.

Dr. Paige Kilian, SVP, Chief Medical Officer at Inovalon
Unsurprisingly, the digital health field is rapidly growing, with 30% of our world’s data generated by the healthcare industry. The potential of emerging technologies to revolutionize health systems and healthcare delivery is immense, offering an array of tools with diverse capabilities from preventing antibiotic overuse and adverse events at the individual practice or hospital level to leveraging continuous glucose and blood pressure monitoring to improve outcomes for large segments of the population. Telemedicine also plays a crucial role, increasing access to both primary and specialty services and offering a bright future for holistic patient care.

Despite the promising advancements, health systems still face hurdles in fully harnessing the potential of digital health. Financial pressures and the difficulty of meaningful integration into EHRs can limit access to these technologies. It is also critical (and often challenging) to ensure the data from these tools are reliable, accurate, and applicable to diverse populations. Embracing a data-driven approach and fostering partnerships across the care continuum is not just beneficial, but essential for health systems to inform population health efforts and treat everyone individually and equitably for optimal outcomes.

Parmjot Bains, CEO at ImpediMed
The integration of MedTech and digital health tools is transforming population health management by offering precise, noninvasive diagnostics that catch conditions early. For example, Bioimpedance Spectroscopy (BIS) is being leveraged by health organizations to address challenges like lymphedema among cancer survivors. By moving beyond traditional manual monitoring methods such as tape measurements, diagnostic tools like BIS have become essential in managing population health, enabling early detection and timely intervention, leading to improved patient outcomes. The real challenge lies in making these innovations accessible to all patients, regardless of location or socioeconomic status, to ensure that the benefits are universally realized. In an era of rapid technological advancement, the key to shaping the future of population health management will be our ability to leverage these tools both effectively and equitably.

Mary Sirois, Managing Director, Performance Improvement Advisory Practice at Nordic
Digital literacy and the desire to engage through digital means are major challenges. There are many misconceptions about digital tools, especially about security and AI, which can deter people from using technology. Integrating new tools can increase care quality and care access, and we need to think about digital first, but not digital always or only. Healthcare is still largely confusing for patients, so making it simpler is a huge driver in improving access to care and the patient experience. The bottom line is nobody is happy about healthcare in a box. Nobody wants to be making phone calls, getting notifications, or going into an app. Patients, who are often in pain, scared, and medicated, have to stop living their lives to receive care and it’s intrusive. Additionally, they are worried about how much it will cost and that they will now have to give something up because they need care.

There are many different perspectives on digital tools. For example, remote monitoring can be helpful for providing continuous real-time data, but the healthcare system has to be ready to receive the patient’s health information and have evidence-based parameters in place to ensure data accuracy and patient compliance. They won’t have the bandwidth to review every data element and they don’t need somebody sitting in front of a computer looking at a bunch of normal numbers. What they need is somebody trained to spot deviations and respond to them to ensure appropriate intervention. This is where AI comes into play, providing alerts to the care team that a decline in condition has occurred and prompting clinically appropriate interaction or response. As more payers and providers establish telehealth and remote monitoring programs, the potential for confusion among patients increases. Often, these programs use different tools and platforms that may not communicate with each other, leaving patients to navigate a fragmented system.

This challenge is further complicated by the fact that many patients may not even be aware that multiple programs exist or that they require different methods of engagement. One of my own physicians captured this challenge succinctly, saying, ‘Don’t make me the integration engine where the technology fails.’ This profound statement highlights a significant issue: despite the advancements in digital health, the technology still isn’t fully optimized for seamless integration into the clinical workflow. It can be overwhelming for healthcare providers who must juggle multiple data streams while ensuring they deliver evidence-based care. To address this, we need to focus on creating systems where digital tools complement the healthcare provider’s workflow rather than complicate it. This means implementing AI and advanced analytics to filter and prioritize data, enabling clinicians to focus on what truly matters—patient care.

Finally, when implementing these digital technologies, we must also consider the human element—both patients and providers. Adoption of new processes can be slow not only among clinicians but in patient populations too, particularly in communities where access to and familiarity with technology may vary. This is where thoughtful design and implementation come into play, ensuring that digital tools are not only accessible but also intuitive and user-friendly for all stakeholders involved.

Oren Nissim, Co-Founder and CEO at Brook Health
The integration of digital health tools, telemedicine, and mobile health applications is revolutionizing population health management by enabling continuous, personalized care at scale. These technologies allow us to monitor health trends in real time, intervene proactively, and engage patients in their own health journeys more effectively than ever before. We’re seeing firsthand how blending AI-driven insights with human clinical expertise can dramatically improve health outcomes across populations. However, the challenge lies in ensuring these advancements reach all communities equitably. We must address barriers such as digital literacy, internet access, and cultural adaptation of these tools. The healthcare industry needs to collaborate with community organizations, policymakers, and tech innovators to create solutions that are not just cutting-edge, but also inclusive and accessible to diverse populations. Only then can we truly harness the full potential of digital health to transform population health management for everyone.

Ryan Bengtson, CEO at Panda Health
Since 2020, we’ve seen an exponential increase in the number of solution providers developing technology to provide care and monitoring services to patients. These companies have enabled more personalized, timely, and accessible care, especially for chronic disease management and preventative care. While they’ve been great for expanding access to care, digital equity remains a hurdle for many populations. For some of the newer generations, digital literacy and adoption are native experiences reflected in their usage of virtual solutions and care. Comparatively, those who belong to ethnic minorities or face language barriers continue to experience significant hurdles in accessing necessary healthcare services. Additionally, there are still many rural, underserved communities without reliable internet access. As we seek to put more patients in charge of their healthcare, stakeholders must create and prioritize inclusive solutions that reach the most vulnerable populations.

Julia Bernstein, Chief Operations Officer at Brightside Health
Healthcare technology is not a panacea for equitable population health; but, it is a key component of broadening access and enabling more personalized care. Across communities, technology is already in the hands of patients, allowing clinicians to collect passive data (such as information from smartphones and wearables) along with active data (like patient surveys within healthcare institutions). This data collection enhances understanding of social determinants of health and allows clinicians to tailor care plans to individual needs, where a one-size-fits-all approach often falls short.

However, ensuring equitable access to these innovations remains a challenge. Low-income communities can face barriers to care such as limited internet access and high costs for smartphone data. Addressing these issues requires collaborative efforts between healthcare organizations, technology companies, and local community entities. By developing creative solutions, such as funding data plans, deploying telehealth terminals in underserved areas, and leveraging trusted community health workers, the industry can bridge the digital divide. This collaboration is essential to ensure that the benefits of digital health tools reach all individuals, enhancing health outcomes across diverse populations.

Samantha Bockoven Tamminga, Health Clinics Coordinator at The Vineyard Free Health Clinics
Digital health tools, telemedicine, and mobile health applications are crucial to creating a more equitable healthcare landscape that allows healthcare providers to treat various patient populations across the country. Such technological applications are especially important to rural populations that have limited access to health care. Many patients in rural areas often have long drives to their nearest healthcare facilities, in addition to a shortage of local doctors, lack of transportation, and overall lack of medical literacy. All of these factors have a negative impact on the healthcare experience.

And it’s not only rural areas impacted by these factors. The Vineyard Free Health Clinics are located within city limits, but many of our patients do not have access to transportation and there is not a bus line leading directly to our clinic. Digital health tools not only allow us to communicate with patients from a distance, but these tools are also helpful when communicating with patients who speak little to no English (which includes a large portion of our patient population). Translation apps allow us to communicate with a patient in their native language, which is extremely helpful within a medical environment.

Weston Blakeslee, PhD, Vice President, Clinical Data Strategies at DrFirst
Health inequities are driven by multiple factors, but new technology is helping close the gap. AI tools, such as those on HIPAA-compliant platforms like Microsoft Azure, are transforming how we analyze and apply evidence-based practices. What once required time-consuming reviews of meta-analyses by clinical leadership can now be streamlined with AI, allowing teams to focus on evaluating insights. This shift accelerates the adoption of best practices in population health management. The more common digital patient engagement technology becomes – including wearables, telehealth, and mobile apps – the more the companies behind these tools will need to rethink product development, with an eye on rooting out disparities before they can start.

Camille Cook, Senior Director, Healthcare Strategy & Innovation at LexisNexis Risk Solutions
The integration of digital health tools is transforming population health management by offering scalable and accessible solutions that enable personalized care, remote monitoring, and continuous patient engagement. A key component of leveraging these technologies is incorporating multi-sourced, patient-level real-world data to uncover insights that enable precise personalization of care and targeted interventions. However, significant challenges persist, particularly in addressing the digital divide and ensuring equitable access for rural and underserved populations that may have limited internet connectivity and fewer healthcare resources. Improving digital infrastructure in underserved regions, implementing community-based technology programs, and ensuring affordable, reliable access to technology can help bridge these gaps and enhance population health initiatives.

Harshit Jain, MD, Founder, and Global CEO at Doceree
Digital health tools, including mobile health apps and telemedicine, have become key drivers in enhancing health literacy and improving population health management. These tools provide easy access to healthcare information, self-monitoring resources, and personalized interventions, empowering individuals to take control of their healthcare. Telemedicine further expands access to healthcare services, enabling remote consultations and facilitating communication between patients and providers.

However, the digital divide remains a significant challenge, with disparities in access to digital technologies and the internet limiting participation for many populations. Low health literacy and inconsistent access to stable internet connectivity exacerbate these inequities, creating barriers to effective digital health engagement. Additionally, safeguarding sensitive health data is critical to maintaining trust and ensuring the ethical use of digital health platforms

There are so many interesting points to consider here! Huge thank you to Karen Iapoce, Vice President, Government Programs at ZeOmega, Jennifer Goldsmith, President at Tendo, Libby Sagara, Managing Director at BluePath Health, David Werry, Co-Founder, President, and COO at Well, Hilary Hatch, Clinical Psychologist and Chief Clinical Officer at Phreesia, Dr. Paige Kilian, SVP, Chief Medical Officer at Inovalon, Parmjot Bains, CEO at ImpediMed, Mary Sirois, Managing Director, Performance Improvement Advisory Practice at Nordic, Oren Nissim, Co-Founder and CEO at Brook Health, Ryan Bengtson, CEO at Panda Health, Julia Bernstein, Chief Operations Officer at Brightside Health, Samantha Bockoven Tamminga, Health Clinics Coordinator at The Vineyard Free Health Clinics, Weston Blakeslee, PhD, Vice President, Clinical Data Strategies at DrFirst, Camille Cook, Senior Director, Healthcare Strategy & Innovation at LexisNexis Risk Solutions, and Harshit Jain MD, Founder and Global CEO at Doceree for taking the time out of your day to submit a quote! And thank you to all of you for taking the time out of your day to read this article! We could not do this without all of your support.

How do you think the integration of digital health tools, telemedicine, and mobile health applications are contributing to the enhancement of population health management, and what challenges exist in ensuring equitable access to these technologies across diverse communities? Let us know either in the comments down below or over on social media. We’d love to hear from all of you!