Female Physicians More Likely to Adopt Telehealth

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By Alexandra Wilson Pecci

Telemedicine usage has soared since the advent of COVID-19 in the United States, and now, a new analysis shows which physicians are embracing the technology most.

Data from Doximity shows that physicians in their 40s and 50s are using telemedicine more often than ones in their 30s.

In addition, female physicians are adopting telemedicine at a much higher rate—to the tune of 25%—than male physicians.

The Doximity data is useful because such a large swath of physicians uses the platform. Doximity’s usage among healthcare professionals includes 70% of all U.S. doctors and 45% of all physician assistants and nurse practitioners.

Such a saturated market put the platform in a unique position to measure the uptick in usage of its new Dialer Video app, which launched in May. According to the company, more than 100,000 U.S. physicians are already using the app for telemedicine regularly.

The usage data also shows that:

The top 10 specialties most actively using telemedicine are:

  1. Endocrinology
  2. Rheumatology
  3. Nephrology
  4. Gastroenterology
  5. Cardiology
  6. Pediatrics
  7. Urology
  8. Family Medicine
  9. Geriatrics
  10. Neurology

The top 10 states with the greatest physician adoption of telemedicine are:

  1. Massachusetts
  2. New Jersey
  3. North Carolina
  4. Maryland
  5. Illinois
  6. New Hampshire
  7. Indiana
  8. Rhode Island
  9. Mississippi
  10. Connecticut

For a bigger picture of just how much telehealth usage has increased, a FAIR Health study from June indicates a national increase of 4,347% in March compared to the same month last year.

The report indicates total telehealth claim lines volume rose from 0.17% in March 2019 to 7.52% in March 2020.

Alexandra Wilson Pecci is an editor for HealthLeaders.