Telemedicine and the Exacerbation of Health Care Disparities

VanderBeek discusses about telemedicine and the exacerbation of health care disparities. The COVID-19 pandemic has increased health disparities in vulnerable and marginalized populations (eg, people with disabilities, immigrants, and people who are non-English speaking) across all areas of medicine. Some of the direct health effects of the pandemic include the disproportionate risk racial and ethnic minority groups face in contracting COVID-19 because of their higher representation in jobs that do not allow for work from home. The promise of telemedicine has always been in its convenience for patients, allowing them to more easily fit a "visit" to the physician into an otherwise busy schedule without suffering the drawbacks of an in-person visit like parking or having to wait in a waiting room. Although telemedicine has been promoted as a way to improve access, we now have evidence that like many other aspects of medicine, use of telemedicine has not spread equally across the population.