Digital health care visits - distribution, content and effects
Digital healthcare visits - visits made via telephone, video or text messages - have increased significantly in recent years. The increased demand indicates that patients see the benefits of digital care. Digital visits also have the potential to lead to cost-savings if they replace more expensive primary healthcare centre or emergency department visits. In this project, we investigate the effects of digital healthcare visits, how they are distributed, and the content of the care.
Aim of the project
The overall aim of the project is to describe and analyze how digital healthcare services affect healthcare utilization, costs and access to healthcare. The project focuses on how the introduction of digital healthcare visits has affected primary care and other outpatient care, but we will also analyze the consequences for longer care episodes. The project will include analysis of the development of digital visits in Sweden - including geographical differences in utilization and reimbursement models, healthcare utilization and costs for digital visits based on care episodes, the use of digital visits in various socio-economic groups and the content of the care in terms of diagnoses and prescribed drugs.
The project is a collaboration with The Swedish Agency for Health and Care Services Analysis, Region Stockholm and Region Dalarna. The project is also funded by Forte.
Results
The project is ongoing and the first results are available in a report in Swedish found here.