Digital Navigation in Health Care

Digital health applications, from tele-mental health services to remote patient monitoring to health portals, have the promise of improving people’s access to health care. But in order to ensure that patients can benefit from these advances in technology, they need robust, affordable internet connections, devices, and the skills to use these technologies safely.

Our work at the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society is focused on ensuring that everyone can use and benefit from broadband. Our recent research on the Human Infrastructure of Broadband, the people who help connect others to the internet, has identified the need for sustainable, scalable models to integrate digital support into other services.

Through the Marjorie & Charles Benton Opportunity Fund, we were excited to support Mass General Brigham’s Digital Access Coordinator program, particularly its work on this playbook we are releasing today.

The Digital Access Coordinator (DAC) Program Playbook is a vital resource for those working to bridge the digital divide in health care, ensuring that all patients— regardless of language, technical familiarity, or socioeconomic background—can fully engage with their health information and providers.

As we move forward in an increasingly digital health care landscape, ensuring equitable access to technology and information is not optional—it is essential. Mass General Brigham’s approach—embedding DACs within primary care teams, training them to support non-English speakers, and expanding outreach through community-based programs—offers a blueprint for health systems nationwide. 

The DAC Playbook is a tool for clinicians, practice staff, and hospital leaders who are interested in addressing digital literacy gaps in their patient populations through the implementation of a digital navigator program. The DAC program offers a direct approach for practices to improve patient engagement with health portals and other digital health tools. We have adapted this playbook from prior work focused on patient engagement.

In this playbook, we describe how the DAC Program works and how you can implement the program at your health care organization. The DAC Program was established at Mass General Brigham, a large integrated health care system in New England. The organization consists of 1.25 million primary care patients and 1,211 primary care clinicians. Since its creation, the DAC Program has enrolled more than 10,000 patients in the patient portal across the organization.

If your practice is just getting started with a DAC program, use the playbook to:

• Identify gaps in digital access in your practice.
• Involve multidisciplinary stakeholders in the development of a digital navigator program.
• Develop workflows for implementing a digital navigator program. 
• Promote the patient portal as a key digital tool for all patients.
• Evaluate the impact of a digital navigator program.

Join us on June 17th at 2 PM ET for a webinar on how poor broadband access and adoption can impact healthcare access and outcomes. Available via the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society’s YouTube page, the webinar will also address policy and programmatic approaches to addressing the digital divide in healthcare. (Please register for the event.)

The Benton Institute for Broadband & Society is a non-profit organization dedicated to ensuring that all people in the U.S. have access to competitive, High-Performance Broadband regardless of where they live or who they are. We believe communication policy – rooted in the values of access, equity, and diversity – has the power to deliver new opportunities and strengthen communities.

© Benton Institute for Broadband & Society 2025. Redistribution of this email publication – both internally and externally – is encouraged if it includes this copyright statement.

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Kevin Taglang
Executive Editor, Communications-related Headlines
Benton Institute
for Broadband & Society
1041 Ridge Rd, Unit 214
Wilmette, IL 60091
847-220-4531
headlines AT benton DOT org

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