Telemedicine may help decrease the racial gap in appointment completion amongst Black patients, according to a new study.
Conducted by the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Penn and released by the Nation Library of Medicine, the observational study found that Black patients were able to reach the levels of non-Black patients when it came to appointment completion once Telehealth was introduced. With Telehealth, a form of telemedicine that allows patients to attend virtual appointments with their doctors, both groups were able to reach an equal completion rate of 80%.
“Given some of the barriers such as competing priorities, longer time traveling to doctors and waiting as well as more financial barriers, our hypothesis is that the availability of telemedicine may have removed some of the impact of these barriers and helped even the playing field in access,” said Dr. Rebecca E. Anastos-Wallen, one of the researchers involved in the study,
To complete the study, researchers looked at data from their medical centers around Philadelphia. Focusing on patients 18 and over, they looked for any trends they could see throughout 2020, the year that Telehealth and telemedicine use increased due to the pandemic.
“The study grew out of my experience as a primary care provider during the pandemic. I noticed that I was able to reach some patients via phone for telemedicine appointments who often struggled to make it into the office,” said Dr. Anastos-Wallen. “It felt like, while in some ways the pandemic was widening pre-existing disparities, in other ways it had made healthcare more accessible for Black patients.”
In their work, the researchers found that before the pandemic hit, in early 2020, the primary care visit rate for Black patients was approximately 60%, Meanwhile, the primary care visit rate for non-Black patients was about 70%.
Compared to non-Black patients who were found to have been part of only 25.3% of Telehealth appointments, Black patients were more eager to adopt the new form of telemedicine as they comprised 33% of the Telehealth appointments, allowing the racial gap to close.
The new data indicates that telemedicine could be a long-term solution for disparities in patient access. Following the shutdown period, the rates of appointment completion remained high. While in-person visits decreased for non-Black patients back to previous rates, the in-person rates for Black patients increased, reaching levels higher than those of 2019.
“Our findings suggest the healthcare system could be doing more to meet our patients where they are,” said Dr.Anastos-Wallen. “Perhaps by reaching out beyond the walls of our institutions and clinics we can start to break down some of the barriers that prevent Black patients from accessing care and perpetuate racial disparities in health outcomes.”
To get a clearer understanding of the connection between telemedicine and appointment completion rates, Dr. Anastos-Wallen and her fellow researchers’ next steps are planning a randomized trial to find cause and effect.
“We also need to do more work to understand the difference in quality between in person and telemedicine appointments,” said Dr.Anastos-Wallen. “It’s great to improve access, but we also need to ensure that the quality of care patients receive via telemedicine appointments is on par with traditional in person appointments.”
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