A study published in NPJ Digital Medicine found that telehealth usage has undergone significant fluctuations since the pandemic.
According to the study, telehealth use encompassed less than 1% of all visits in 2019 before jumping to 31.2% in the second quarter of 2020 and dropping back down to 5.8% in the third quarter of 2023.
During sustained pandemic use of telehealth, mental health, endocrinology and genetics saw higher use of telehealth, ranging from 19.8% to 64.5% of total completed visits. Meanwhile, telehealth use in cardiology, dermatology and obstetrics and gynecology spiked in March and April 2020 but declined afterwards.
The study also found that telehealth was associated with reduced no-show odds compared to in-person visits.
The study was conducted by researchers at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine through Epic Research. Researchers studied telehealth use and no-shows among 444,752 patients with 1.97 million outpatient visits between Jan. 1, 2021, and July 1, 2022.