Research Insights: Did Demand for Telemedicine Grow During the COVID-19 Pandemic?
Peer Reviewed
Date issued
Jun 2022
Publication
Journal version
Subject
Coronavirus;
Telemedicine;
Pandemic;
Health;
Health Care System;
Health Care Service;
Social Distancing
JEL code
I11 - Analysis of Health Care Markets;
I15 - Health and Economic Development;
P36 - Consumer Economics • Health • Education and Training • Welfare, Income, Wealth, and Poverty
Country
Argentina
Category
Catalogs and Brochures
We exploit mobility restrictions imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic to show the existence of a larger potential demand for telemedicine services in a middle-income developing country. We find an increase in the number of calls by 230 percent during the pandemic. The effects were mostly driven by older individuals with pre-existing conditions who used the service for internal medicine consultations. After the mobility restrictions were lifted, the demand for telemedicine services remained high.
