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The COVID-19 Pandemic and the Future of Telemedicine

The use of telemedicine was quite limited in most OECD countries before the COVID-19 pandemic, held back by regulatory barriers and hesitancy from patients and providers. In early 2020, as COVID-19 massively disrupted in-person care, governments moved quickly to promote the use of telemedicine. The number of teleconsultations skyrocketed, playing a vital role in maintaining access to care, but only partly offsetting reductions in in-person care. This report provides an overview of the use of telemedicine in OECD countries, describing how governments scaled up remote care during the pandemic and exploring the impact that this massive shift to remote care has had on health care system performance. Telemedicine may be here to stay, but questions remain concerning how to regulate its use, how to pay for it, how to integrate it with in-person care, and how to make sure that it constitutes good value for money for all. This report puts forth priorities for policy makers to inform the discussion and to promote the best use of remote care services in the future.

Available from January 17, 2023

In series:OECD Health Policy Studiesview more titles

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Foreword
Executive summary
Use of telemedicine has boomed during the COVID‑19 pandemic
The regulation and financing of telemedicine in the OECD, before and during COVID‑19
The impact of telemedicine on health care system performance
Policy priorities for promoting the best use of telemedicine
Annexes4 chapters available
Country participation in data collection
Supplementary results from the OECD Survey on Telemedicine and COVID‑19, 2021‑22
Systematic review of the literature
Overview tables of the literature review
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