Abstract
BackgroundWhile telemedicine has been expanding over the past decade, the COVID-19–related restrictions regarding in-person care have led to unprecedented levels of telemedicine utilization. To the authors’ knowledge, no studies to date have quantitatively analyzed both national and regional trends in telemedicine utilization during the pandemic, both of which have key implications for informing health policy.ObjectiveThis study aimed to investigate how trends in telemedicine utilization changed across the course of the COVID-19 pandemic.MethodsUsing data from doxy.me, the largest free telemedicine platform, and the NIH (National Institutes of Health) Clinical Center, the largest clinical research hospital in the United States, we assessed changes in total telemedicine minutes, new provider registrations, monthly sessions, and average session length from March to November 2020. We also conducted a state-level analysis of how telemedicine expansion differed by region.ResultsNational telemedicine utilization peaked in April 2020 at 291 million minutes and stabilized at 200 to 220 million monthly minutes from May to November 2020. Surges were strongest in New England and weakest in the South and West. Greater telemedicine expansion during the COVID-19 pandemic was geographically associated with fewer COVID-19 cases per capita. The nature of telemedicine visits also changed, as the average monthly visits per provider doubled and the average visit length decreased by 60%.ConclusionsThe COVID-19 pandemic led to an abrupt and subsequently sustained uptick in telemedicine utilization. Regional and institute-level differences in telemedicine utilization should be further investigated to inform policy and procedures for sustaining meaningful telemedicine use in clinical practice.
Highlights
In the past three decades, telemedicine—defined by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) as the use of telecommunication and technological services to provide and support medical care at a distance—has been widely adopted by health care providers and systems across the world [1,2]
The information technology revolution, including the rapid expansion of electronic health record (EHR) usage and sharing, has accelerated the expansion of telemedicine, with more than 60% of US health care systems and 40% to 50% of US hospitals employing some form of telehealth [5]
This study demonstrated that telemedicine expanded by more than 50-fold its previous level at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and has continued to maintain this high level of utilization across subsequent months, within states in New England and the Mid-Atlantic
Summary
In the past three decades, telemedicine—defined by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) as the use of telecommunication and technological services to provide and support medical care at a distance—has been widely adopted by health care providers and systems across the world [1,2]. Telemedicine can include synchronous modalities (ie, real-time audio or audiovisual interaction), asynchronous modalities (ie, messages or images exchanged via a patient portal), or remote patient monitoring. The information technology revolution, including the rapid expansion of electronic health record (EHR) usage and sharing, has accelerated the expansion of telemedicine, with more than 60% of US health care systems and 40% to 50% of US hospitals employing some form of telehealth [5]. To the authors’ knowledge, no studies to date have quantitatively analyzed both national and regional trends in telemedicine utilization during the pandemic, both of which have key implications for informing health policy
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