Health ICTs and transgender health equity: a research agenda

Abstract

While research in healthcare service provision for transgender and gender diverse (TGD) people has seen rapid progress, health information communication technologies (health ICTs) research on this key population is falling behind. Blindspots in the literature risk perpetuating systemic barriers to healthcare access. This critical, cross-disciplinary literature review applies a health equity perspective alongside the lenses of structural violence and intersectionality. It presents a research agenda for building systematic knowledge in the Information Systems (IS) and Information Communication Technologies for Development (ICT4D) fields, identifying and addressing blindspots that risk amplifying existing inequities for TGD people. It makes theoretical contributions to discourse on health equity and ICTs by exploring how health ICTs shape the inclusion and exclusion of marginalized communities. In facilitating a scholarly and practice-based understanding of the effect of health ICTs on TGD health provision, it paves the way for these fields to make significant contributions to global health equity.