On May 12 and 13, 2023, UBC Digital Emergency Medicine, Vancouver Coastal Health and the VGH & UBC Hospital Foundation jointly hosted the Technologies in Emergency Care (TEC) 2023 Conference.

TEC 2023 brought together over 250 participants across Canada – including patient partners, innovators, health professionals and policy makers – to focus on the theme “Essential Digital Health for the Underserved.” The purpose of this event was to co-define what essential digital health means and how digital health can improve equity in access to high quality health services in Canada.

Following the conference, a group of over 50 authors produced a series of paper through three foundational guiding lenses:

1.  How can digital health address current gaps in healthcare delivery?

2.  How can digital health offer innovative services that conventionally would not have been achievable before?

3.  How can digital health not create new challenges or further marginalize groups in the future?

The papers were published in Longwoods HealthcarePapers in February 2024. Topics range from equitable and inclusive co-design, to the engagement of rural, remote First Nations Communities, to the considerations for data interoperability, to translating research into policy. These papers are intended to stimulate discussion to advance the conversation about the core principles, values and road map for how digital health services can improve healthcare delivery to inform the future of essential digital health for the underserved in Canada.

We welcome your feedback and participation as the conversation continues to evolve. See the individual papers here.