Equity and equality in telehealth: Bridging promise and practice- editorial.

Abstract

Telehealth was rapidly adopted during the COVID-19 pandemic as a means of widening access to care, yet the same technologies can reproduce or amplify the disparities they are meant to close. This editorial introduces the Equity and Equality in Telehealth Special Collection, synthesizing four articles that examine virtual care from the level of the individual clinical encounter to that of global policy and technological design: the co-design and implementation of an Indigenous patient experience tool, an international expert roundtable on telemedicine infrastructure and sustainability, a rapid review of ethical and equity considerations in telerehabilitation, and a quantitative comparison of patient-centered communication across telehealth and in-person visits. Together they show that equitable telehealth depends not on access alone but on community co-design, sustained infrastructure investment, honest measurement, and an enduring commitment to the relational core of care.