Dr. Devlon Jackson,  health activist and communications scientist, spoke on Monday, September 19th at Montgomery College’s Germantown Campus for the Frank Islam Athenaeum Symposia Fall 2022 Speaker Series on social justice and community wellness.

As Assistant Research Professor for the Department of Behavioral and Community Health in the School of Public Health at the University of Maryland, Dr. Jackson conducts her research on the impact of digital health. She expressed how her own experiences, as well as her family’s, have influenced her desire to research ways digital health tools help connect and eliminate gaps in healthcare for communities of color.

Digital health concerns how information technologies prevent and manage health conditions and illnesses. Dr. Jackson discussed how the pandemic created a surge in the use of digital health tools.

Examples provided of digital health tools included electronic records held by healthcare providers, patient portals from doctor’s offices that show information such as lab results and allow communication with providers, smart watches, phone applications for meditation or nutrition, and telehealth services allowing patients to visit healthcare providers virtually.

One of the advantages discussed of digital health tools was an increase of Black adults attending medical visits thanks to the availability of telehealth appointments.

However, gaps remain in digital health tools as it relates to race and ethnicity. Barriers include difficulty navigating digital health tools, due to experience and familiarity with technology, as well as trouble understanding the actual language itself.

Many digital health tools available in the U.S. today do not consider or include different language options. To address this and other disparities, Dr. Jackson and her colleagues are in the final stages of developing a bilingual Spanish-English smartphone application called HealthyMe/MiSalud that provides personalized health information resources. Dr. Jackson and colleagues consulted Black and Hispanic community members in the state of Maryland throughout the design and testing of the application.

Dr. Jackson stated she hoped to increase awareness of digital health tools that can help impact actions, goals, and everyday health decisions of individuals in communities of color. On a broader level, she stated her interest in promoting scholarly activism and social justice as a whole within public health and wellness spaces.

“As a mother, a student, and a future employee, it’s really important for me”

Najah Mills, current MC student, attended the session because, “as a person of color, I have experienced racial disparities in certain healthcare provider settings.” Mills expressed excitement  learning about the HealthyMe/MiSalud application. “It would mean the world to have access to a free application. As a mother, a student, and a future employee, it’s really important for me so I can be the best I can be…and ask my own family members how it affects their health so we can all help each other.”

Dr. Jackson’s hope for Montgomery College students is that, “after hearing this presentation that if they never knew what digital health was before, that they have a different view on how it impacts their daily lives.” As for moving forward, she expressed “there are many ways in which digital tools can benefit us, but there’s still a lot of work to be done.”

Information and updates on the release of the HealthyMe/MiSalud application can be found under the current projects page at the University of Maryland School of Public Health Center for Health Literacy website.

The next session for the the  Further information on the Frank Islam Athenaeum Symposia Speaker Series can be found online at https://www.montgomerycollege.edu/events/athenaeum-symposia.