Research Insights: Did Demand for Telemedicine Grow During the COVID-19 Pandemic?

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.