Telehealth Adoption Highest Among Diabetes, GI Care Providers

Of the various adult medicine specialties, physicians specializing in endocrinology and gastroenterology had the highest rates of telehealth adoption during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new report.

Released by Doximity in partnership with CareJourney, the report analyzes survey responses from physicians who use Doximity's telemedicine platform and bill Medicare. Approximately 185,000 US physicians billed Medicare telehealth claims from January 2020 to June 2021, of which 45 percent used Doximity's platform.

As expected, physician telehealth use broken down into age ranges showed that more younger physicians used telehealth than their older counterparts.

Among physicians using Doximity's telemedicine platform, 37 percent were between 30 and 39 years and 24 percent were between 40 and 49 years. In comparison, only 17 percent of physicians were between 50 and 59 years and 13 percent were older than 60.

"Telemedicine makes it easier for doctors to provide care to a wide range of patients, including many patients who most need expanded access to care," said Peter Alperin, vice president of product at Doximity, in the news release.

With regard to physician specialties, the report shows that telehealth adoption rates were highest among those who cared for chronically ill patients. The top five specialties for telehealth adoption were:

1. Endocrinology

2. Gastroenterology

3. Rheumatology

4. Urology

5. Nephrology

In particular, research showing that telehealth can successfully help manage diabetes is growing, with recent studies showing the care modality can lower hemoglobin A1C levels in adults with type 2 diabetes and that it helped maintain care quality for diabetics during the pandemic.

The report also broke down the metropolitan areas across the country with the highest telehealth adoption rates among physicians. The top five were:

1. Boston

2. Baltimore

3. Charlotte, North Carolina

4. Philadelphia

5. San Francisco

Though adoption was concentrated in some of the largest cities in the country, a few smaller metro areas made the top 20 list, including Birmingham, Alabama; Richmond, Virginia; and Riverside, California.  

Further, the report includes data on how telehealth has impacted patient trust in historically marginalized populations.

Doximity surveyed 1,000 physicians from Nov. 21 to Dec. 5, 2021, asking them whether telehealth made it easier or harder to build trust with these vulnerable patients or if it did not affect trust-building at all.

Sixty-seven percent of physicians said that access to telehealth helped them build or maintain trust with patients from marginalized communities.

This may be because telehealth is more convenient and helps patients feel safer, enabling them to seek care without exposing themselves to potential infections, according to the report. Further, virtual visits allow patients to include family and other caregivers, which could have contributed to growing trust between vulnerable patients and their providers.

Correction: A previous version of this article mistakenly stated the percentages of physicians in different age groups using telehealth. The article has been updated to indicate the breakdown of Doximity platform users by age.