AMA: Telemedicine use by docs is exception rather than rule

The first nationally representative estimates of physicians’ use of telemedicine has found the numbers lacking, according to the American Medical Association.

Data from the AMA’s 2016 Physician Practice Benchmark Survey of 3,500 doctors, published in the December issue of Health Affairs, show that only 15 percent of physicians worked in practices that used telemedicine for patient interactions, such as diagnosing or treating patients, following up with patients or managing patients with chronic conditions.

In addition, just 11 percent of doctors worked in practices that used telemedicine for interactions with healthcare professionals, such as having a specialty consultation or getting a second opinion.

At the same time, the AMA’s data indicated that physicians in smaller medical practices and physician-owned medical practices had a lower rate of telemedicine use than physicians in larger medical practices and those that were not physician-owned.

“We found that, in addition to specialty, larger practice size was an important correlate of telemedicine use,” states the article’s AMA authors. “This suggests that despite regulatory and legislative changes to encourage the use of telemedicine, the financial burden of implementing it may be a continuing barrier for small practices.”

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When it came to telemedicine use by specialty, radiologists (39.5 percent), psychiatrists (27.8 percent) and cardiologists (24.1 percent) had the highest use of telemedicine for patient interactions, while emergency medicine physicians (38.8 percent), pathologists (30.4 percent) and radiologists (25.5 percent) had the highest use of telemedicine for interactions with healthcare professionals.

Videoconferencing, the telemedicine modality with the most widespread use, was used in the practices of 12.6 percent of physicians. Store and forward of patient data for analysis and diagnosis was used in the practices of 9.4 percent of doctors. And, remote patient monitoring was used in the practices of 7.3 percent of physicians.