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Telehealth for Quitting: How Remote Care Is Transforming Cessation—and Who It Leaves Behind
Telehealth has expanded access to cessation support—counseling by video, prescriptions by phone, digital coaching. It has also widened the digital divide. The smokers who need telehealth most are the smokers least able to access it.
Telehealth for smoking cessation: counseling by video, prescriptions without an office visit, digital coaching between appointments. The pandemic accelerated the shift. The result: increased access for some smokers, increased barriers for others. **Telehealth requires broadband, a device, digital literacy, and privacy—resources that are concentrated among the affluent. The smokers who would benefit most from remote care—the poor, the rural, the elderly—are the smokers least able to access it.**
