1. Rural Telemedicine Use Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Repeated Cross-sectional Study
- Author
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Chu, Cherry, Cram, Peter, Pang, Andrea, Stamenova, Vess, Tadrous, Mina, and Bhatia, R Sacha
- Subjects
Computer applications to medicine. Medical informatics ,R858-859.7 ,Public aspects of medicine ,RA1-1270 - Abstract
BackgroundThe COVID-19 pandemic has led to a notable increase in telemedicine adoption. However, the impact of the pandemic on telemedicine use at a population level in rural and remote settings remains unclear. ObjectiveThis study aimed to evaluate changes in the rate of telemedicine use among rural populations and identify patient characteristics associated with telemedicine use prior to and during the pandemic. MethodsWe conducted a repeated cross-sectional study on all monthly and quarterly rural telemedicine visits from January 2012 to June 2020, using administrative data from Ontario, Canada. We compared the changes in telemedicine use among residents of rural and urban regions of Ontario prior to and during the pandemic. ResultsBefore the pandemic, telemedicine use was steadily low in 2012-2019 for both rural and urban populations but slightly higher overall for rural patients (11 visits per 1000 patients vs 7 visits per 1000 patients in December 2019, P
- Published
- 2021
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