ArticleJournal of primary care & community health
Examining Differences in Utilization of the Ontario eConsult Service in Rural Versus Urban Settings: A Retrospective Cross-Sectional Analysis.
Article in Journal of primary care & community health. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
What it found
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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.
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Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed.
- Virtual Care and Telehealth for Improving Healthcare Access in Rural Western Canada and the Western United States: A Scoping Review and Narrative Synthesis.Journal of clinical medicine · 2026Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
introductionWe conducted a retrospective, cross-sectional analysis exploring patterns of usage and outcomes from urban vs. rural eConsults to examine eConsult's impact on equity of access in rural Ontario, Canada. Patients living in rural regions face many barriers in accessing specialist care. The Ontario eConsult Service connects primary care providers (PCP) with specialists regardless of geographical location, improving equity of access.
methodsWe included all Ontario eConsult cases submitted between January 1 and December 31, 2021. Usage data collected automatically by the service and responses to a mandatory closeout survey were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Cases were identified as rural using the forward sorting area of the PCP's primary practice.
resultsOf the 72,948 cases submitted during the study period, 7550 were coded rural. Usage among rural PCPs was most frequent in Ontario Health North East (1.78 eConsult cases/1000 residents) and Ontario Health North West (1.64). Rural and urban eConsult cases had the same top 5 most frequently requested specialties. Both groups had median response times of 1.0 days, reported time billed of 15 min, and cost per case of $50.
conclusionsPCPs in rural and urban regions use eConsult with equal frequency and had similar usage patterns and outcomes.
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Registered trials
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