Telemedicine Improved Access to Endocrinology Care for Rural Patients

New research published in JAMA Network Open suggests that “the availability of telemedicine during the COVID-19 pandemic improved access to endocrinology care for rural patients with type 2 diabetes and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease.”

Researchers “analyzed the use of telemedicine for endocrinology and cardiology patients in association with sociodemographic and geographic variables during two-year time periods before and after the pandemic began. The data represented more than 9,000 patients in a large health system in Pennsylvania, spanning both rural and urban areas.”

Patients who lived further away from endocrinology clinics used to be less likely to receive care, but that association “weakened in the post-telemedicine era.”

Cardiovascular disease is “the leading cause of death for patients with type 2 diabetes, which prompted researchers to also analyze the use of cardiology care. In this specialty, telemedicine did not appear to increase access to care based on a patient’s distance to the nearest clinic. Instead, receipt of care was more closely linked to neighborhood walkability, race, and cellular phone access.”

Older patients were always “less likely to receive endocrinology care and Black patients were less likely to receive cardiology care.” More research is required to flesh out these associations, but this research provides perspective on “the impact of pandemic-related telemedicine expansions on specialty care for this patient population.”