The rise of telemedicine during the COVID-19 pandemic has been one of the defining outcomes for the healthcare community.  Adoption has become widespread, but new research by the Henry Ford Health System reminds us that while this is to be celebrated, there remain concerns about certain populations missing out.

The paper focuses on head and neck cancer patients, and reveals that those who are low-income, on Medicaid, or are uninsured were less likely to use video consultations but instead have their sessions over the telephone.  What’s more, low-income women were less likely to complete a telemedicine visit than their male peers.

“While virtual care may provide a promising platform for expanded access to care in some patients, it must be implemented in a way that it doesn’t create barriers to already disadvantaged patient populations,” the authors explain.

Virtual care

The pandemic has created an obvious need for virtual care provision, and the researchers wanted to examine the impact socioeconomic factors have on the delivery of such care.  They assessed the socioeconomic status of head and neck cancer patients who had received a telehealth consultation between March 17 and April 24 2020, and compared these with a similar cohort from the same timeframe in 2019.

In total, data from 401 patient encounters were analyzed, with the data including the age, sex, race, insurance status, household income, education, marital and employment status, and English-speaking households.  From these, in-person visits accounted for 25.1%, 49.1% were virtual visits, and the remaining 23.6% telephone visits.

“We know that access to smartphones and video technology is not universal but almost everyone has access to a telephone,” the researchers explain. “As virtual care expands during and after this pandemic, we must keep in mind that a phone call remains an important communication method for patients to talk to their doctor.”