Telehealth Use Among Surgeons Soared During Pandemic

Among 4,405 surgeons in a Michigan cohort, 2,599 (59%) used telehealth to meet with a patient.

Telehealth use among surgeons for patient visits soared in the early months of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, according to a new study.

Researchers examined insurance claims from a Michigan statewide commercial payer for new patient visits with a surgeon from 1 of 9 surgical specialties immediately before the pandemic (January 5 to March 7, 2020), during the early months of the pandemic (March 8 to June 6), and later in the pandemic (June 7 to September 5).

The research was published online Friday in JAMA Surgery.

Among the 4,405 surgeons in the Michigan cohort, 2,599 (59%) used telehealth to meet with a patient. For new patients, 1,182 surgeons (27%) used telehealth, and a total of 109,610 surgical new patient telehealth visits were identified during the pandemic.  

Before March 2020, less than 1% (8 of 173, 939) of new patient visits were done using telehealth.

Telehealth use peaked in April 2020 -- week 14 of the pandemic – and represented 35% (479 of 1,383) of all new patient visits that week.

The telehealth conversion rate peaked in April 2020 -- week 15 -- and was equal to more than 8% of the 2019 mean weekly new patient visit volume.

From March to June, 12% of all new patient surgical visits were conducted using telehealth).

From June to September, telehealth visits slipped to 3% (2,168 of 71,819) of all new patient surgical visits.  

The median age of telehealth patients was 47 (34-58) years compared with 52 (38-62) years for in-person patients.

"While rates of telehealth use have declined as in-person care has resumed, telehealth use remains substantially higher across all surgical specialties than it was prior to the pandemic," the study said.