Study finds providing telehealth technology access may expand reach and benefits

Medical Xpress March 7, 2022
University of North Carolina School of Medicine

A recently published study, Evaluating a Tobacco Treatment Program’s Transition to Telehealth Using a Social Determinants of Health Lens, considered how access to telehealth services was impacted by Social Determinates of Health (SDOH), using five-digit zip codes mapped to the CDC’s Social Vulnerability Index (SVI) and driving distance to the hospital.

The study found that with access to telehealth technology provided, the percentage of inpatients at each SVI vulnerability level who participated in tobacco cessation treatment remained stable from in-person to telehealth delivery of care. While other recent studies have shown that outpatient telehealth may exacerbate disparities in care, these inpatient telehealth findings suggest that improving access to telehealth infrastructure and technology may correlate to expanded reach and benefits to...