One of the fastest growing trends in health care is the development of digital tools to help individuals and providers manage their care. To date, however, most of these innovations have only been aimed at relatively healthy, middle- to upper-middle class populations.

Through the Digital Health Initiative, CHCS worked to bring the potential benefits of digital health tools to low-income populations with complex needs. Several of the features of this population, including their high prevalence of housing instability, difficulty accessing regular and affordable transportation, and the number of conditions they concurrently manage, make them ideal targets for digital health solutions.

With support from Kaiser Permanente Community Benefit, CHCS hosted two digital health developer challenges aimed at encouraging start-ups, entrepreneurs, and other innovators to design tools that meet the specific needs of this population.

Through a series of webinars and published resources, CHCS also worked to educate state policymakers, health care delivery systems, and managed care plans about opportunities for leveraging digital tools to better manage the health care needs of complex populations