← Return To Homepage
Featured In ePatient 2015 The Device Divide trend icon

The Device Divide

Today, the 'digital divide' separates those who can access the latest digital tools from those who cannot. In digital health, we face a 'Device Divide' — economic disparities that may prevent patients, providers, hospitals, and clinics from accessing the latest technological innovations.

ePatient 2015, the book where the The Device Divide trend was first published

First published in ePatient 2015 →

Trend Longevity Rating

B Graded B in 2026 ·
matured and remains highly relevant, even where the details changed

How this trend held up

The specific gap the book measured — slow EHR adoption in low-income and minority communities — has largely closed; U.S. hospital EHR adoption is now near-universal, driven by the same federal incentive programs the book described. But the divide didn't disappear, it relocated. The pandemic-era shift to telehealth exposed a broadband- and device-access gap that mapped onto the same populations the book flagged as underserved, and the current frontier — access to AI-assisted diagnostics and remote monitoring — is showing early signs of the same pattern. The book's core warning, that health technology's benefits reliably reach the privileged first, held up; the specific technology in question kept changing.

Every past trend prediction is re-reviewed and graded with a Trend Longevity Rating, measuring how much each originally curated trend still matters years later.

Keep Exploring

Part of the non-obvious
trend collection.

Rohit Bhargava delivering a keynote

Want To Use These Trends?

Book A Trend Keynote Or Workshop!

Bring this trend and more to your group with a customized keynote presentation or workshop session with Rohit Bhargava. Non-Obvious Thinkers win the future. Let’s explore how we can help you do this for yourself.

Learn More & Check Availability

Want More Non-Obvious Ideas?

Join 100K+ ReadersTo Get Weekly Insights

The Non-Obvious Insights Newsletter brings you the five or six most fascinating and overlooked stories of the week, with a quick take on why each one matters.

    One email every Thursday. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.