ArticleGesundheitswesen (Bundesverband der Arzte des Offentlichen Gesundheitsdienstes (Germany))2023
[Effects of the Covid-19 Pandemic on Online Use of Video Consultation by General Practitioners in Germany - a Secondary Data Analysis of German Health Insurance Data].
Article in Gesundheitswesen (Bundesverband der Arzte des Offentlichen Gesundheitsdienstes (Germany)), 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed.
- [Potential of a Telemedical, Inpatient-Outpatient Care Concept to Improve the Quality of Healthcare from the User's Perspective - An Acceptance Analysis of the TELnet@NRW Study].Gesundheitswesen (Bundesverband der Arzte des Offentlichen Gesundheitsdienstes (Germany)) · 2024Trial
- Experiences with remote ethics consultation: a qualitative study with ethics consultants in Germany.BMC medical ethics · 2026Article
- Benefits and challenges of asynchronous telemedicine in obtaining a second opinion: a qualitative interview study.BMJ open · 2025Article
- Use of Video Consultation Between 2017 and 2020 in Outpatient Medical Care in Germany and Characteristics of Their User Groups: Analysis of Claims Data.JMIR formative research · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundIn order to manage the Covid-19 pandemic in Germany in March 2020, the government implemented non-pharmaceutical interventions including school closures, case-based measures, social distancing, and a ban of all public events. Under these circumstances, professional societies and associations in the healthcare sector recommended the use of video consultations. The objective of this analysis was to generate statistically relevant insights into the use of video consultations before and during the Covid-19 pandemic
methodsThis study is based on the analysis of a comprehensive claims data set comprising anonymized data of 5.6 million beneficiaries of a large German health insurance fund. The dataset encompassed healthcare claims from 1 January 2019 to 30 June 2020 covering 29,464,913 patient contacts. The claims were divided into video consultations and face-to-face consultations. This paper presents descriptive statistics and analyses associations between variables.
resultsIn 8,077 out of all contacts, a video consultation had taken place. This translates into 3.12 of 10,000 contacts. There was no significant difference in the utilization of video consultations by gender. However, the age differed significantly (Chi-square:2280.01, Sig: 0.000) between the contacts with or without use of video consultation. There is a significant increase of up to 27 times the use of video consultation in the first lockdown compared to the same month in 2019.
conclusionsApparent higher usage of telemedicine by patients in the age group 50 to 64 years and the very low usage in the group of 65 to 74 years shows that the use of video consultation is age sensitive and should be subject to goal-oriented implementation of telemedical offers. The observed increase, however, is small relative to the total number of patient contacts and is not significant. Thus, there is no evidence in this large dataset to support the claim that video consultation had risen dramatically through the Covid-19 pandemic. Qualitative research to determine the factors for patients and general practitioners that lead to or hinder the use of video consultation should help in addressing the slow digitalization in the outpatient sector in Germany.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.