Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on use of telemedicine services in an academic medical center

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic changed the landscape of telehealth services. The goal of this paper was to identify demographic groups of patients who have used telemedicine services before and after the start of the pandemic, and to analyze how different demographic groups' telehealth usage patterns change throughout the course of the pandemic. A de-identified study dataset was generated by querying electronic health records at the Mount Sinai Health System to identify all patients. 129,625 patients were analyzed. Demographic shifts in patients seeking telemedicine service were identified. There was significant increase in the middle age and older population using telehealth services. During the pandemic use of telemedicine services was increased among male patients and racial minority patients. Furthermore, telehealth services had expanded to a broader spectrum of medical specialties. © 2021 European Federation for Medical Informatics (EFMI) and IOS Press.