According to information, provided by the official site of the US Health and Human Services (HSS) Department, it obtains 12 active organizational branches. Each one of the agencies under the HSS is responsible for a specific health and human service operation and relevant research realization. The audience targeted by the Department’s agencies are mostly minorities of different kind, and their initiatives are meant to provide them with healthcare equity.
Today, it seems like the most efficient way of spreading information in any field is by the means of the Internet. Through the last decade, healthcare systems in the United States were obliged to transfer their data to online platforms. The reason behind that was to improve healthcare processes and awareness among the patients. According to (Lyles et al., 2015) the outcomes of the introduction of electronic healthcare records were positive in terms of reducing health disparities for people of color and those with limited health literacy. However, it was also mentioned by the authors that even though almost everyone in America has access to the worldwide web, not everyone is able to use the healthcare portals due to the lack of language options. Besides, there were accounts that described the information presented on such portals as superficial.
In order to improve accessibility and quality of online healthcare platforms, the US Health and Human Services came up with Healthy People initiative. Unfortunately, according to Finney Ruthen et al. (2019) “objective of increasing the proportion of health information seekers who easily access health information online” was not met. Therefore, it means that there are still a lot of people that are unable to obtain proper healthcare information and are restricted in their rights.
References
Finney Ruten, L. J., Blake, K. D., Greenberg-Worisek A. J., Allen, S., Moser, R. P., & Hesse, B. W. (2019). Online health information seeking among US adults: Measuring progress toward a healthy people 2020 objective. Sage Journals, 134(6). Web.
Lyles, C., Schillinger, D., & Sarkar, U. (2015). Connecting the dots: Health information technology expansion and health disparities.PLoS Medicine, 12(7). Web.
Health and Human Services Agencies and Offices(n.d). U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Web.