Telemental Health May Be Here to Stay, But Do We Like It?

As the declaration of COVID-19 as a public health emergency was removed and Medicare and private insurers began establishing permanent policies for reimbursing telehealth services (Cummings et al., 2023), two looming questions appeared: Do patients and clinicians actually like using telemental health for care? And which mode of care, phone or video, should continue to be adopted moving forward? Connolly and her colleagues (see record 2025-17163-001) examine this timely question in their systematic review presented in this current issue. The authors conducted an exhaustive search of 2,056 telemental health-related articles over a 10-year span from 2013 to 2023, refining their search to the 24 studies that examined patient and/or provider satisfaction for phone and video-based care. Including only studies that examined both phone and video modalities is a unique strength of their review, as few studies have directly compared the two methods of providing care among the same individuals. As the authors note and consistent with many technology adoption theories, an individual’s perception of a technology influences their likelihood of using it, making the subjective experience of using telemental health very salient for the future of the care (Holden & Karsh, 2010). The authors conducted a head-to-head comparison of phone and video telemental health, examining patient and provider ratings of (1) the perceived effectiveness, (2) ease of use, (3) overall attitude and satisfaction, and (4) preferred modality between phone and video visits. This direct comparison has the potential to guide policy and inform decision making as the field of telemental health navigates its future role in health care. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved)