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Use of virtual care in ophthalmology in Ontario, Canada in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the use and trends of virtual care in ophthalmology and examine associated factors in a universal health care system during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. PARTICIPANTS: Ontarians eligible for the Ontario Health Insurance Plan. METHODS: We used...

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Autores principales: Jin, Ya-Ping, Canizares, Mayilee, El-Defrawy, Sherif, Bogale, Wongel, Buys, Yvonne M.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Canadian Ophthalmological Society. Published by Elsevier Inc. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9584866/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36356650
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jcjo.2022.10.015
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author Jin, Ya-Ping
Canizares, Mayilee
El-Defrawy, Sherif
Bogale, Wongel
Buys, Yvonne M.
author_facet Jin, Ya-Ping
Canizares, Mayilee
El-Defrawy, Sherif
Bogale, Wongel
Buys, Yvonne M.
author_sort Jin, Ya-Ping
collection PubMed
description OBJECTIVE: To investigate the use and trends of virtual care in ophthalmology and examine associated factors in a universal health care system during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. PARTICIPANTS: Ontarians eligible for the Ontario Health Insurance Plan. METHODS: We used physician billing data from 2017–2020 to describe the use of virtual versus in-person care. We used logistic regression to examine factors associated with virtual care use. RESULTS: The uptake of ophthalmic virtual visits increased immediately following the government's directive to ramp down clinic activities and institution of a new virtual fee code (17.6%), peaked 2 weeks later (55.8%), and decreased immediately after the directive was lifted (24.2%). In March–December 2020, virtual visits were higher in female (11.6%) versus male (10.3%) patients and in patients <20 years of age (16.4%) and 20–39 years of age (12.3%) versus those aged 40–64 years (10.8%) and 65+ years (10.6%). Patients residing in the poorest/poorer neighbourhoods (10.9%) had similar use as their counterparts (11.1%). Patients with an acute infectious disease (14.2%) or nonurgent diagnosis (16.2%) had the highest use. Those with retinal disease had the lowest use (4.2%). Female ophthalmologists (15.4%) provided virtual care more often than male ophthalmologists (9.9%). Ophthalmologists aged 60–69 years (13.1%) provided virtual care more often than any other age groups (<40 years: 11.3%; 40–49 years: 11.0%; 50–59 years: 10.0%; and 70+ years: 7.7%). Multiple logistic regression models revealed similar results. CONCLUSION: Virtual care in ophthalmology increased significantly during the initial phase of the pandemic and decreased thereafter. There were significant variations in virtual care use by patient and ophthalmologist characteristics.
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spelling pubmed-95848662022-10-21 Use of virtual care in ophthalmology in Ontario, Canada in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic Jin, Ya-Ping Canizares, Mayilee El-Defrawy, Sherif Bogale, Wongel Buys, Yvonne M. Can J Ophthalmol Original Article OBJECTIVE: To investigate the use and trends of virtual care in ophthalmology and examine associated factors in a universal health care system during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. PARTICIPANTS: Ontarians eligible for the Ontario Health Insurance Plan. METHODS: We used physician billing data from 2017–2020 to describe the use of virtual versus in-person care. We used logistic regression to examine factors associated with virtual care use. RESULTS: The uptake of ophthalmic virtual visits increased immediately following the government's directive to ramp down clinic activities and institution of a new virtual fee code (17.6%), peaked 2 weeks later (55.8%), and decreased immediately after the directive was lifted (24.2%). In March–December 2020, virtual visits were higher in female (11.6%) versus male (10.3%) patients and in patients <20 years of age (16.4%) and 20–39 years of age (12.3%) versus those aged 40–64 years (10.8%) and 65+ years (10.6%). Patients residing in the poorest/poorer neighbourhoods (10.9%) had similar use as their counterparts (11.1%). Patients with an acute infectious disease (14.2%) or nonurgent diagnosis (16.2%) had the highest use. Those with retinal disease had the lowest use (4.2%). Female ophthalmologists (15.4%) provided virtual care more often than male ophthalmologists (9.9%). Ophthalmologists aged 60–69 years (13.1%) provided virtual care more often than any other age groups (<40 years: 11.3%; 40–49 years: 11.0%; 50–59 years: 10.0%; and 70+ years: 7.7%). Multiple logistic regression models revealed similar results. CONCLUSION: Virtual care in ophthalmology increased significantly during the initial phase of the pandemic and decreased thereafter. There were significant variations in virtual care use by patient and ophthalmologist characteristics. Canadian Ophthalmological Society. Published by Elsevier Inc. 2022-10-21 /pmc/articles/PMC9584866/ /pubmed/36356650 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jcjo.2022.10.015 Text en © 2022 Canadian Ophthalmological Society. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Since January 2020 Elsevier has created a COVID-19 resource centre with free information in English and Mandarin on the novel coronavirus COVID-19. The COVID-19 resource centre is hosted on Elsevier Connect, the company's public news and information website. Elsevier hereby grants permission to make all its COVID-19-related research that is available on the COVID-19 resource centre - including this research content - immediately available in PubMed Central and other publicly funded repositories, such as the WHO COVID database with rights for unrestricted research re-use and analyses in any form or by any means with acknowledgement of the original source. These permissions are granted for free by Elsevier for as long as the COVID-19 resource centre remains active.
spellingShingle Original Article
Jin, Ya-Ping
Canizares, Mayilee
El-Defrawy, Sherif
Bogale, Wongel
Buys, Yvonne M.
Use of virtual care in ophthalmology in Ontario, Canada in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic
title Use of virtual care in ophthalmology in Ontario, Canada in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic
title_full Use of virtual care in ophthalmology in Ontario, Canada in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic
title_fullStr Use of virtual care in ophthalmology in Ontario, Canada in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic
title_full_unstemmed Use of virtual care in ophthalmology in Ontario, Canada in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic
title_short Use of virtual care in ophthalmology in Ontario, Canada in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic
title_sort use of virtual care in ophthalmology in ontario, canada in 2020 during the covid-19 pandemic
topic Original Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9584866/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36356650
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jcjo.2022.10.015
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