ArticleCMAJ open
Virtual care use before and during the COVID-19 pandemic: a repeated cross-sectional study.
Article in CMAJ open. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 159 papers.
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Who cites it
159 citing papers in PubMed.
- Trial
- Experiences of healthcare access during the COVID-19 pandemic in remote Indigenous communities in Northwest Territories, Canada.International journal of circumpolar health · 2026Article
- Barriers and Enablers to Asynchronous Secure Messaging Use in Hospital-Based Ambulatory Specialty Clinics in Ontario, Canada: Convergent Mixed Methods Study.Journal of medical Internet research · 2026Article
- Evaluating the quality and safety of a nurse practitioner-led virtual clinic for secondary prevention in stable coronary artery disease: a pilot feasibility study.BMJ open quality · 2026Article
- Cocreating the Principles of Compassionate Virtual Care With South Asian Immigrants: Protocol for a Qualitative Study.JMIR research protocols · 2026Article
- Estimated Travel-Related COHealthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Virtual Care Remuneration Policy and Postdischarge Follow-Up Trends.JAMA network open · 2026Article
- Article
- Virtual Care and Compassion for Migrants and Refugees: A Scoping Review.Journal of immigrant and minority health · 2026Review
- Implementation of virtual primary care: a comparative study of family medicine residents' experiences.Canadian medical education journal · 2026Article
- How and Why Telehealth Interventions Improve Self-Care Among Vulnerable Groups of Patients With Heart Failure: Scoping Review and Rapid Realist Synthesis.JMIR human factors · 2026Article
- Article
- Changes in Clinician Telemedicine Use and Care Patterns for Patients With Heart Failure in the United States.Circulation. Population health and outcomes · 2026Article
- Virtual care as deployed to improve access to primary health care in three Canadian provinces: a policy focused qualitative study.BMC primary care · 2026Article
- External prescription circulation and chronic medication refills via internet hospital: a real-world study of patient characteristics in eastern China.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- Patient Perspectives on Virtual vs In-Person Posttreatment Care for Brain Metastases.Advances in radiation oncology · 2025Article
- Compassionate primary care training and practice in the digital technology sphere: a scoping review protocol.Canadian medical education journal · 2025Article
- Primary care physicians' perspectives on digital health tools for chronic disease management: A rapid review.PLOS digital health · 2025Review
- Article
- Changes in driving distance to specialist physicians in the era of virtual care: a population-based cohort study in Ontario, Canada.CMAJ : Canadian Medical Association journal = journal de l'Association medicale canadienne · 2025Article
99 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundThe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is thought to have increased use of virtual care, but population-based studies are lacking. We aimed to assess the uptake of virtual care during the COVID-19 pandemic using comprehensive population-based data from Ontario.
methodsThis was a repeated cross-sectional study design. We used administrative data to evaluate changes in in-person and virtual visits among all residents of Ontario before (2012-2019) and during (January-August 2020) the COVID-19 pandemic. We included all patients who had an ambulatory care visit in Ontario. We excluded claims for patients who were not Ontario residents or had an invalid or missing health card number. We compared monthly or quarterly virtual care use across age groups, neighbourhood income quintiles and chronic disease subgroups. We also examined physician characteristics that may have been associated with virtual care use.
resultsAmong all residents of Ontario (population 14.6 million), virtual care increased from 1.6% of total ambulatory visits in the second quarter of 2019 to 70.6% in the second quarter of 2020. The proportion of physicians who provided 1 or more virtual visits per year increased from 7.0% in the second quarter of 2019 to 85.9% in the second quarter of 2020. The proportion of Ontarians who had a virtual visit increased from 1.3% in 2019 to 29.2% in 2020. Older patients were the highest users of virtual care. The proportion of total virtual visits that were provided to patients residing in rural areas (v. urban areas) declined significantly between 2012 and 2020, reflecting a shift in virtual care to a service increasingly used in urban centres. The rates of virtual care use increased similarly across all conditions and across all income quintiles.
interpretationOur findings show that Ontario's approach to virtual care led to broad adoption across all provider groups, patient age, types of chronic diseases and neighborhood income. These findings have policy implications, including use of virtual care billing codes, for the ongoing use of virtual care during the second wave of the pandemic and beyond.
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