Indigeneity, diversity, and equity in Internet interventions: Could ISRII contribute to making health care a universal human right?

This article is a partially revised version of a keynote address presented at the 10th Scientific Meeting of the International Society for Research on Internet Interventions (ISRII) in Auckland, New Zealand. It addresses six points: 1) the meanings of indigeneity, diversity, and equity, 2) the strong emotional reactions elicited by the inequities experienced by indigenous groups throughout the world, 3) the aspirations of members of ISRII in terms of what we would like our field to accomplish to address these inequities, 4) the United Nations goal of making health care a universal human right, 5) the difficulties encountered by other health sciences in attempting to include diverse populations into major studies, and 6) ways in which the Internet interventions and digital health field could include indigeneity, diversity, and equity in our work, and by doing so, contribute to the United Nations goal of making health care a universal human right. The authors suggest that providing access to health care to all people, no matter where they are on the socioeconomic continuum, is a key strategy to pursue. The field of Internet interventions could contribute by creating digital apothecaries that would develop, evaluate, and disseminate evidence-based Massive Open Online Interventions to anyone in the world who needs them.