How digitalLIFT’s healthcare partners used digital inclusion to reduce barriers to care
When someone can’t reach their doctor, it isn’t always because care is unavailable. Sometimes a missed appointment is a missed bus. Sometimes, however, there is a digital barrier — a patient portal that felt impossible to navigate, a telehealth call that never connected, a benefits form that required internet access that didn’t exist at home.
That’s why, as part of our MHM Partnership Spotlight Series, we’re starting with something that can feel counterintuitive: healthcare and digital equity aren’t separate conversations, and they’ve been the same conversation all along.
The Gap Inside the Gap
Telehealth expanded dramatically during and after the pandemic, extending the potential of care to people regardless of geography. But expansion without access is just distance in a different form. For older adults unfamiliar with video platforms, communities navigating portals that are difficult to understand or not available in their preferred language, the digital divide quickly becomes a health divide.
Our healthcare partners saw this directly. They watched patients miss telehealth appointments not because they didn’t want care, but because they didn’t have the device, the connection, or the confidence to show up digitally.
“One of our patients appreciated and thanked both EFCST and digitalLIFT for providing the devices. He is now able to speak and keep up with his physician and order medication refills on time — which overall provides him better medical care and seizure prevention.”
— Epilepsy Foundation of Central & South Texas
What Partnership Made Possible
The response to this gap required more than awareness. It required people — trusted, trained, embedded in communities — who could meet patients where they were and walk them through the digital tools their care now depends on.
That’s the role Digital Navigators fill. And it’s the role digitalLIFT has built its training model around.
Through our Digital Navigator Training, we equip healthcare partner staff with the skills to guide patients through telehealth platforms, patient portals, benefits applications, and device setup — not as a technical support function, but as an extension of care. Navigators learn how to assess digital readiness, build confidence with hesitant or anxious learners, and connect community members to devices and reliable internet resources when access was the missing piece.
Community health workers as Digital Navigators: In many communities, trusted frontline staff and community health workers became Digital Navigators — serving as the bridge between patients and the healthcare tools designed to support them.
“Through Navigator training, technical assistance, and resource guidance, our staff gained the skills needed to assess participants’ digital needs, provide one-on-one support, and connect families to affordable internet, devices, and digital skills training.”
— Bastrop County Cares
Patient portal support, in person: Digital tools become far more accessible when someone is there to guide the process alongside you.
“Mr. Ramirez, a resilient 94-year-old former migrant worker, is a regular client at the Seco Mines Community Center. Community Health Worker and Digital Navigator, Hilda, helped him apply for utility assistance, SNAP, and the Medicare Savings Program — then sat with him for a personalized training session when his device arrived. Together, they set up the device, saved his family’s contacts, and went over the main functions, ensuring he felt confident using his new tool to connect with loved ones.”
— MHP Salud
Device and connectivity access ties to health outcomes: Navigators connect patients to affordable device programs and low-cost internet, recognizing that a telehealth platform without a device is just a link that goes nowhere.
Public benefits navigation as preventive care. Access to food assistance, utility support, and housing stability reduces health emergencies. Trained navigators help patients work through digital benefits systems — preventing downstream crises before they started.
Tools Built for This Work
One of the consistent challenges for healthcare organizations entering digital inclusion work is the build-it-yourself problem: developing curriculum from scratch, training trainers, and figuring out what actually works with their populations takes time and resources most organizations don’t have.
digitalLIFT’s pre-made classroom curriculum was built to solve that problem. It gives Digital Navigators a structured, proven starting point — organized by skill level, adaptable to different learner needs, and ready to use from day one. Healthcare partners in our MHM network didn’t have to reinvent the wheel. Now they can focus their energy on their communities, knowing the instructional foundation is already solid.
“DigitalLIFT has provided a learning booklet and resources along with digital navigator training. This made it easy to best serve our community in implementing a game plan to follow. Continued support is always appreciated and offered by digitalLIFT, which gives us confidence to know they are there to help when needed. Through our digital equity program we have been able to offer assistance from job searching, healthcare resources, continuing education, and everything that comes with digital skills building. This has been an amazing opportunity for our rural community and we will keep moving forward no matter the challenges or setbacks.”
— Family Services Association of San Antonio, Rural Crystal City
If your organization works at the intersection of healthcare and community — and digital barriers are getting in the way of the care you’re trying to deliver — Digital Navigator Training and our classroom curriculum are available at digitalift.org. We’d be glad to talk about what a partnership could look like.
*We’re grateful to the healthcare organizations across our MHM network who brought this lens to their work. Your insight has refined ours.
Next month, we turn to disability, accessibility, and what it truly means to build digital ecosystems that center autonomy.
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