Differences in the Use of Telephone and Video Telemedicine Visits During the COVID-19 Pandemic

ABSTRACT

Objectives: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic forced health systems to offer video and telephone visits as in-person visit alternatives. Although video visits offer some benefits compared with telephone visits, they require complex setup, which may disadvantage some patients due to the “digital divide.” Our objective was to determine patient and neighborhood characteristics associated with visit modality.

Study Design: This was a cross-sectional study across 1652 primary care and specialty care practices of adult patients at an integrated health system from April 23 to...