Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, healthcare professionals have looked to change how they provide care. Preventing the spread of the virus remains a top priority, which has led to a push in the delivery of telehealth services. Research is finding telehealth visits may be beneficial for other reasons, particularly among minority patients seeking eye care. 

Dr. David Ramsey, M.D, Ph.D., MPH, an ophthalmologist and director of ophthalmic research at Lahey Hospital and Medical Center of Beth Israel Lahey Health, explains the benefits for patients who receive telehealth eye care.

What Were the Research Findings on Telehealth?

Dr. Ramsey and his colleagues conducted a study to compare patients that received telehealth services to those that did not in patients with diabetic retinopathy. They found patients were 50%, or, at times, up to 100% more likely to return for in-person care in the first year of the pandemic than those who had not received telehealth services. 

How Is It Affecting the Health Equity Gap?

According to Ramsey, Black Americans, Asian Americans, Hispanic, and Latino Americans benefited from telehealth services. The research findings indicated that these minorities were even more likely to return for in-person visits if they received the services than those of the very same groups that had not. 

Telehealth services may be helping to close the health inequity gap. However, Ramsey added that these minority groups still returned at a lower rate than non-Hispanic White patients. 

What Does It Mean?

Prior to the pandemic, some healthcare professionals questioned how telehealth would be received by patients and, thus, its potential effectiveness in treatments. These findings indicate there may be great benefits, especially to minority populations. 

Dr. Ramsey states, “It’s very exciting and enticing to believe that the delivery of care through telehealth services, where a physician contacts their patient and shares with them a concern for their vision, their eyes, and certainly during this period, their general health, may have had an important part in the process of them returning for in-person care.” 

*Melillo, G. (2022, January 3). Dr. David Ramsey Discusses the Importance of Telehealth Eye Care Visits. AJMC. https://www.ajmc.com/view/dr-david-ramsey-discusses-the-importance-of-telehealth-eye-care-visits