Digitalization transforms the field of health in contemporary societies not only at the technological level but also across sociocultural, economic, and ethical dimensions. In Türkiye, digital health tools such as e-Nabız, the Central Physician Appointment System (MHRS), telemedicine applications, and digital hospital infrastructures have transferred many processes into digital environments, ranging from access to healthcare services and appointment management to monitoring diagnostic results and tracking chronic diseases. This transformation repositions individuals from being passive recipients of healthcare services to becoming “digital health subjects” who continuously generate data, monitor their own health indicators, and are increasingly involved in decision-making processes. However, this new position is not equally accessible to all individuals.

The primary aim of this study is to discuss how digitalization generates new forms of inequality from the perspective of health sociology and to examine these inequalities through the dimensions of access, use, privacy, and participation. The findings reveal that the digital divide cannot be reduced solely to differences in technical infrastructure; rather, it operates in conjunction with social determinants such as age, income level, gender, educational background, spatial location, and digital skills. In particular, among older individuals, although awareness of digital health applications is relatively high, active use remains limited, with many procedures being carried out with assistance from others. The gap between access to information and the ability to apply that information is shown to affect health outcomes.

Moreover, the digital health environment is not only contested in terms of access but also raises significant ethical concerns. The continuous circulation of personal health data brings issues of privacy, surveillance, and institutional trust to the forefront. Individuals are encouraged to share data in exchange for promises of faster services, more personalized monitoring, and easier access, thereby blurring the boundaries between voluntary consent and institutional control within the healthcare domain. The study argues that while digitalization has the potential to accelerate access to healthcare, enhance individual control over health, and increase transparency in institutional processes, it simultaneously creates a new “digital health citizenship threshold,” which may generate exclusion, dependency, and distrust—particularly for vulnerable groups.

In conclusion, although digital health technologies possess the capacity to promote equality of opportunity, they also carry the risk of reshaping and reinforcing existing social inequalities. Therefore, digital health policies should focus not only on improving technological infrastructure but also on strengthening e-health literacy, institutionalizing data security and ethical oversight, and supporting the effective participation of vulnerable groups in the digital health system.