Leader in digital health equity awarded prestigious fellowship

eHealthNews.nz: Digital Patient

Leader in digital health equity awarded prestigious fellowship

Tuesday, 21 February 2023

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NEWS - eHealthNews.nz editor Rebecca McBeth

Amio Matenga Ikihele has been awarded a 2023 Winston Churchill Fellowship to explore how digital health equity is being addressed in underserved communities in the United States.

Matenga Ikihele, of Niue and Te Whānau-ā-Apanui heritage, is general manager of community and innovations for Moana Connect and chairs the New Zealand Telehealth Forum digital health equity group.

She hopes that learnings from the US can help in the development of digital health technologies that are culturally acceptable and equitable for Pacific communities back in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Matenga Ikihele led the creation of DIGIFALE, which involves Pacific youth acting as navigators for elders, teaching them how to use mobile phones to interact online.

She says that after Covid-19 hit, many Pacific people became isolated because they did not have, or could not use, a mobile phone.

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Connecting to church services online was particularly important for the wellbeing of older Pacific people, so she applied for funding to provide elders with mobile phones and support to use them.

DIGIFALE started with a Niuean community, but has since expanded to cover Samoan, Tongan and Fijian and has so far reached 200 elders, with around 135 navigators, across Auckland, Wellington and Dunedin.

“Our elders are learning how to navigate online, and the young people are finding out about health services and things like the sponsored data websites,” she says.

Matenga Ikihele will share that experience when she travels to the US, and learn from others about working to create health technology products that are designed in partnership with communities, rather than ‘for’ communities.

“Too often people are designing products and telling communities, ‘we've got a solution for you’, but this is about ensuring that what we're designing is responsive to community needs,” she says.

Matenga Ikihele says aligning technology with Pacific values such as collectivity is particularly important, as digital health tools are often targeted at individuals.

“That is a misalignment with Pacific values, where it's about the family and the community, so how can we embed that within digital tools which are only designed for me?” she asks.

She says the cost and skills associated with using digital health tools can also widen current health inequalities, as the same communities that have barriers to accessing traditional healthcare, have the same barriers to accessing digital technologies.

However, tools such as telehealth and patient portals can help to reduce barriers by offering more convenient options to people.

“We just need to make sure they have the right access and skills to be able to use this meaningfully,” she says.

Churchill Fellowships allow citizens from all walks of life to design their own research projects, travel the world and further their knowledge in a chosen field, before returning to make their knowledge available to New Zealand society. Since the Trust was established in 1965, over 800 Fellowships have been awarded.

Picture: Amio Matenga Ikihele, general manager of communications and innovations, Moana Connect