American College of Rheumatology: Race, Age, Sex and Language Affected Telemedicine Use by Rheumatology Clinic Patients During COVID-19 Pandemic

New research presented at ACR Convergence, the American College of Rheumatology’s annual meeting, shows a significant lack of fairness among telemedicine and electronic patient portals used by rheumatology clinic patients based on their race, age, sex and English language proficiency. During the pandemic, factors associated with telemedicine use were younger age, living farther from the hospital, female sex, English language preference, white race identity and having commercial insurance.

  • Researchers found that patients who identified as white were more than two times as likely as Black or American Indian/Alaska Native patients to use telemedicine.
  • Patients who preferred to speak English were more than three times as likely to use telemedicine than those who preferred to speak Spanish or other non-English languages.