Factors Influencing Telemedicine Use at a Northern New England Cancer Center During the COVID-19 Pandemic

摘要

QUESTION ASKED: What geographic, demographic, or medical factors had the most impact on the use of telemedicine for cancer care during its rapid uptake in response to the COVID-19 pandemic? SUMMARY ANSWER: Patients with indicators of higher medical complexity or acuity were less likely to be seen via telemedicine; patients under age 45 and 85 years and older were more likely to use telemedicine along with those residing in urban geographies. Telemedicine use also varied significantly by clinical site. WHAT WE DID: We analyzed 1 year's worth of data from an electronic health record-sourced data set of the multisite Dartmouth Cancer Center in rural Northern New England using generalized linear mixed regression models to characterize the trends in telemedicine use among various factors, further subdivided by pandemic phase from local onset including lockdown and transition phases early on v later stabilization and subsequent second pandemic wave.