Non-urgent virtual care visits have grown by an unprecedented 4345% at a New York University (NYU) hospital, according to findings published this week in the Journal of the American Informatics Association.

The growth, which was recorded between 2 March and 14 April, was accompanied by a 683% increase in virtual urgent care visits at NYU Langone Health. Also participating in the study were researchers from NYU Tandon School of Engineering and NYU School of Global Public Health.

Telehealth is surging in the US, leading many clinicians to conclude that Covid-19 could transform the way physicians in the Western world provide care, both during and after the current pandemic.

NYU Tandon School of Engineering professor Oded Nov said: “An important question going forward is how much this will continue beyond the Covid pandemic. While we expect patients and providers who got a crash course in telemedicine to continue using it long-term, regulators and insurers’ decisions will have a major impact.”

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