MedStar Health Awarded Additional $2 Million Grant to Expand Research on National Telehealth Access, Safety, and Health Equity

“Our initial research demonstrates that telehealth is delivering on its promise to provide accessible and effective care,” said Raj Ratwani, PhD, co-principal investigator for both grants, vice president of scientific affairs for the MedStar Health Research Institute, and director of the MedStar Health National Center for Human Factors in Healthcare. “Thanks to the continued support of AHRQ, we will advance patient safety nationally by studying and scaling telehealth as a proactive safety tool while also enhancing its safe use within the diverse communities served by connected care.” For the team’s new study in npj Digital Medicine, researchers analyzed more than 4.1 million completed in-person and telehealth (video or phone) adult primary care encounters for nearly 940,000 unique patients at MedStar Health, Stanford Health Care, and Intermountain Healthcare from January 1, 2019 to December 31, 2021, as well as each patient’s payor type (commercial, Medicaid, Medicare, and other). “While we expected to see variability in telehealth use in primary care, we were interested to learn that those patients with chronic illness and frequent primary care needs consistently replaced one to two visits per year with a telehealth visit,” said Ethan Booker, MD, study co-author, co-principal investigator for both grants, and chief medical officer of telehealth for MedStar Health. Given the evidence that telehealth has expanded our care capabilities, we believe federal and state legislation and regulations should continue to protect telehealth access.” Through the new grant, the team will continue work under the name Connected CARE - Care Access, Research, Equity & Safety Consortium and expand beyond their initial focus on primary care.