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Access and Use of Telemedicine During COVID-19

Metadata Updated: April 23, 2025

The Research and Development Survey (RANDS) is a platform designed for conducting survey question evaluation and statistical research. RANDS is an ongoing series of surveys from probability-sampled commercial survey panels used for methodological research at the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS). RANDS estimates are generated using an experimental approach that differs from the survey design approaches generally used by NCHS, including possible biases from different response patterns and sampling frames as well as increased variability from lower sample sizes. Use of the RANDS platform allows NCHS to produce more timely data than would be possible using traditional data collection methods. RANDS is not designed to replace NCHS’ higher quality, core data collections. Below are experimental estimates of telemedicine access and use for three rounds of RANDS during COVID-19. Data collection for the three rounds of RANDS during COVID-19 occurred between June 9, 2020 and July 6, 2020, August 3, 2020 and August 20, 2020, and May 17, 2021 and June 30, 2021. Information needed to interpret these estimates can be found in the Technical Notes. RANDS during COVID-19 included questions about whether providers offered telemedicine (including video and telephone appointments) in the last 2 months—both during and before the pandemic—and about the use of telemedicine in the last 2 months during the pandemic. As a result of the coronavirus pandemic, many local and state governments discouraged people from leaving their homes for nonessential reasons. Although health care is considered an essential activity, telemedicine offers an opportunity for care without the potential or perceived risks of leaving the home. The National Health Interview Survey, conducted by NCHS, added telemedicine questions to its sample adult questionnaire in July 2020. The Household Pulse Survey (https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/covid19/pulse/telemedicine-use.htm), an online survey conducted in response to the COVID-19 pandemic by the Census Bureau in partnership with other federal agencies including NCHS, also reports estimates of telemedicine use during the pandemic (beginning in Phase 3.1, which started on April 14, 2021). The Household Pulse Survey reports telemedicine use in the last 4 weeks among adults and among households with at least one child under age 18 years. The experimental estimates on this page are derived from RANDS during COVID-19 and show the percentage of U.S. adults who have a usual place of care and a provider that offered telemedicine in the past 2 months, who used telemedicine in the past 2 months, or who have a usual place of care and a provider that offered telemedicine prior to the coronavirus pandemic. Technical Notes: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/covid19/rands/telemedicine.htm#limitations

Access & Use Information

Public: This dataset is intended for public access and use. License: See this page for license information.

Downloads & Resources

Dates

Metadata Created Date November 10, 2020
Metadata Updated Date April 23, 2025
Data Update Frequency irregular

Metadata Source

Harvested from Healthdata.gov

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date November 10, 2020
Metadata Updated Date April 23, 2025
Publisher Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Maintainer
Identifier https://data.cdc.gov/api/views/8xy9-ubqz
Data First Published 2020-09-14
Language en-US
Data Last Modified 2025-04-21
Category National Center for Health Statistics
Public Access Level public
Data Update Frequency irregular
Bureau Code 009:20
Metadata Context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
Metadata Catalog ID https://healthdata.gov/data.json
Schema Version https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
Catalog Describedby https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
Harvest Object Id a4a22ad1-5518-463e-b481-8f94f876fd7a
Harvest Source Id 651e43b2-321c-4e4c-b86a-835cfc342cb0
Harvest Source Title Healthdata.gov
Homepage URL https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/covid19/rands/telemedicine.htm
License https://www.usa.gov/government-works
Old Spatial US
Program Code 009:020
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash 18bfab347576adb0e36f29d09d76ffbb2890998f71357c866d415cb787809f6f
Source Schema Version 1.1
Spatial {"type":"Polygon","coordinates":-124.733253,24.544245,-124.733253,49.388611,-66.954811,49.388611,-66.954811,24.544245,-124.733253,24.544245}
Temporal 2020-06-09/2021-06-30

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