Mass General Brigham has launched a Digital Access Coordinator (DAC) Program pilot site at Mass General – a United Against Racism initiative to address gaps in digital literacy and increase patient access to tools, including Patient Gateway and virtual visits. Following the program’s success in primary care settings in Revere and Chelsea, two bilingual DACs will now be stationed in the Wang and Yawkey lobbies on the MGH main campus to educate patients about these tools.

Patients can be referred to the program by their nurses and physicians, but anyone in need of assistance can speak to a DAC Monday through Friday from 7:30 am to 3:30 pm in either lobby location.

“Our bilingual staff cover Arabic, Cantonese/Mandarin, Haitian Creole, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish language support for our non-English speaking patients,” says Katie Moore, director of Quality and Patient Experience, Digital Health at Mass General Brigham. “We’re really excited to see how this works in a different care setting like Mass General’s main campus where we can reach more patients.”

Navigating technology has been challenging for many patients throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, even for those without a language barrier. The DAC Program hopes to bridge this gap and provide patients with the knowledge they need to schedule their own appointments, access their medical records, join a virtual meeting and contact their health care providers as needed.

“When we look at something like breast screening rates for women of color, for example, we see huge disparities,” says Aswita Tan-McGrory, MBA, MSPH, director of the Mass General Disparities Solutions Center. “Making sure they know how to successfully schedule a mammogram online is one great way to reduce those disparities.”

Allison Bryant, MD, MPH, senior medical director of Health Equity at Mass General Brigham and the program’s executive sponsor, says lessons learned from engaging DACs in this new care setting will help inform the greater program strategy across Mass General Brigham.

“We haven’t taken any DACs out of any of the locations we stood up over a year ago,” she says. “Being in charge of your own health is really empowering for patients, so we’ve had a great response from them so far. We have some great ideas for program expansion in the future.”

For more information about the program and referring patients, visit Apollo.

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