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The Remote by Default research study, a collaboration between the Universities of Oxford and Plymouth and the Nuffield Trust, has been exploring how technology can be harnessed to support excellent primary care. Using workshops, interviews, and focus groups of clinicians, service users, and other stakeholders, they have begun to map the multiple interacting influences on the choice of consultation modality.

The Telerehab Toolkit is a patient and practitioner guide to remote appointments for people with movement impairment and disability.

Hughes et al. studied video consulting in the NHS during 2020–2021 through video interviews, an online survey and online discussions with people who had provided and participated in such consultations. Video consulting had previously been used for selected groups in limited settings in the UK. The pandemic created a seismic shift in the context for remote consulting, in which video transformed from a niche technology typically introduced by individual clinicians committed to innovation and quality improvement to offering what many felt was the only safe way to deliver certain types of healthcare. A new practice emerged: a co-constitution of technology and healthcare made possible by new configurations of equipment, connectivity and physical spaces. Despite heterogeneous service settings and previous experiences of video consulting, we found certain kinds of common changes had made video consulting possible. The authors used practice theory to analyse these changes, interpreting the commonalities found in our data as changes in purpose, material arrangements and a relaxing of rules about security, confidentiality and location of consultations.

In this interview for Healthcare IT News, Lisa Hedges, associate principal analyst at Software Advice, discusses the findings of a survey of 1,000 patients on telemedicine usage after the worst of the pandemic. She also talks about the future of telemedicine. The survey found that: more than half of patients are concerned about the quality of care they're receiving through telemedicine. the majority of people prefer virtual appointments for common illnesses. 86% of patients rate their telemedicine experience as positive. 91% are more likely to choose a provider that offers telemedicine. 49% prefer telemedicine visits for mental health treatment, despite it being one of the more remote-ready specialties.