Researchers from Johns Hopkins University Health System Report on Findings in Telemedicine (Individual- and Neighborhood-level Disparities In Audio-only Telemedicine Utilization Across a Large Academic Health System): Telemedicine

2023 JUL 20 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- Fresh data on Telemedicine are presented in a new report. According to news reporting from Baltimore, Maryland, by NewsRx journalists, research stated, “The objective of this study was to understand whether use of audio-only telemedicine visits differed by individual- and neighborhood-level patient characteristics during the COVID-19 pandemic. We conducted a retrospective cross-sectional study of telemedicine encounter data from a large academic health system.”

The news correspondents obtained a quote from the research from Johns Hopkins University Health System, “The primary outcome was rate of audio-only versus video visits. The exposures of interest were individual- (age, race, insurance, preferred language) and neighborhood-level (Social Deprivation Index [SDI]) patient characteristics. Our study included 1,054,465 patient encounters from January 1, 2020 to December 31, 2021, of which 18.33% were completed via audio-only. Encounters among adults 75 years or older, Black patients, Spanish-speakers, and those with public insurance were more frequently conducted by audio-only (p < 0.001). Overall, populations showed decreasing rates of audio-only visits over time. We also observed an increase in the rate of audio-only encounters as SDI scores increased. We found that audio-only disparities exist in telemedicine utilization by individual and zip code level characteristics. Though these disparities have improved over time as seen by our temporal analysis, marginalized and minority groups still showed the lowest rates of video utilization. access to audio-only care is a critical component to ensure that telemedicine is accessible to all populations.”

According to the news reporters, the research concluded: “State and federal policy should support continued reimbursement of audio-only care to ensure equitable access to care while the implications of different care modalities are further studied.”

This research has been peer-reviewed.

For more information on this research see: Individual- and Neighborhood-level Disparities In Audio-only Telemedicine Utilization Across a Large Academic Health System. Telemedicine and e-Health, 2023. Telemedicine and e-Health can be contacted at: Mary Ann Liebert, Inc, 140 Huguenot Street, 3RD Fl, New Rochelle, NY 10801, USA. (Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. - www.liebertpub.com; Telemedicine and e-Health - http://www.liebertpub.com/overview/telemedicine-and-e-health/54/)

Our news journalists report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Helen K. Hughes, Johns Hopkins University Health System, Off Telemed, Baltimore, MD, United States. Additional authors for this research include Lilija Sadauskas, Brian W. Hasselfeld, Yvonne Commodore-Mensah, Colin Wu, Casey Overby Taylor, Jeremy A. Epstein and Brian K. Stackhouse.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1089/tmj.2023.0050. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.

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