Despite developments in technology, access is still a major issue.

Globally, only 24% of the most vulnerable have access to internet connection, versus 74% of the least vulnerable according to 2019 polling by Gallup’s Basic Needs Vulnerability Index. Although this divide is notable globally, this inequity is even more pronounced in developing economies in which the least vulnerable are more than three times as likely to have internet access than the most vulnerable. This presents a major challenge to telemedicine as an accessible institution.

This is in part due to prohibitively high costs for individuals and in part due to limitations of infrastructure which pose the largest barriers in rural regions and developing countries.