Table 1.

Characteristics of the empirical studies.

Author, year, and country	Study design	Setting	Sample	Aim of research
Parker et al [48], 2021, United Kingdom	Systematic review	Primary care (any country)	Studies that compared remote and face-to-face consultations (until June 2020)	To explore the impact of remote consultations on use and clinical outcomes in disadvantaged groups
Litchfield et al [49], 2021, United Kingdom	Rapid review and narrative synthesis	UK primary care	Studies that explored various constructs within the 3 domains of the digital divide framework	To identify how this “digital divide” was manifested during the first wave of the pandemic and highlight any areas that might be usefully addressed for practice beyond the pandemic
Chang et al [50], 2020, United States	Quantitative study using rapid response surveys	Small primary care practices in low-income, minority, or migrant areas of New York City	5372 primary care providers contacted in 5 waves	To understand how primary care practices were responding to the COVID-19 pandemic and examine whether telemedicine use and barriers differed based on the socioeconomic characteristics of the communities served
Eberly et al [23], 2020, United States	Quantitative retrospective electronic record audit	Large academic health system	2940 patients who had scheduled a remote consultation	To compare patients who completed telemedicine encounters with patients who were scheduled but did not complete a visit early in the COVID-19 pandemic
Fu et al [5], 2022, United Kingdom	Mixed methods—quantitative survey before and during the pandemic and qualitative data from free-text notes	DOTWa United Kingdom—a third-sector organization serving migrants with drop-in clinics	Migrant patients (survey: n=6268; free-text analysis: n=96)	To understand the living conditions, changes in the service user profile, and needs of vulnerable migrants trying to access health care both before and during the pandemic (when DOTW services moved to telephone)
Stevens et al [51], 2021, United Kingdom	Qualitative interview study (“rapid health needs assessment”)	Across England	42 interviews with people who experienced social vulnerability and faced barriers to accessing health care	To assess the experiences of socially vulnerable people during the COVID-19 pandemic
Kaihlanen et al [52], 2022, Finland	Qualitative semistructured interview study	National study, mostly via third-sector organizations working with vulnerable groups	N=74, including older adults, migrants, mental health service users, high users of health services, and unemployed individuals	To examine the challenges experienced by vulnerable groups using digital health services during the COVID-19 pandemic
Knights et al [53], 2021, United Kingdom	Qualitative semistructured interview study	Urban, suburban, and rural settings in England	48 clinicians, 16 administrative staff, and 17 migrant patients	To understand the pandemic’s impact on recent immigrants and their access to primary health care and implications for vaccine rollout
Alkureishi et al [54], 2021, United States	Qualitative semistructured interview study	Primary care clinics linked to a Chicago academic research center	54 interviews with adult patients and parents of child patients who had web-based visits (March 2020-September 2020)	To understand service users’ perspectives on (1) the definition, causes, and impact of the digital divide; (2) whose responsibility it is to address this divide; and (3) potential solutions to mitigate this
Donaghy et al [55], 2019, United Kingdom	Qualitative semistructured interview study	Scotland primary care	Patients (n=21) and primary care clinicians (n=13)	To explore the views of physicians, nurses, and patients who have experienced a web-based consultation
Rodriguez et al [56], 2021, United States	Quantitative cross-sectional study using electronic health record data	Across primary and specialty care in Boston, Massachusetts	Data from 162,102 patients across 1652 primary and specialty care practices	To use data from a large, integrated health system to determine patient, clinician, clinic, and neighborhood characteristics associated with visit modality
Hsueh et al [57], 2021, United States	Quantitative retrospective cross-sectional study	Primary care across Kaiser Permanente, Northern California	955,352 patient portal self-scheduled primary care telemedicine visits	To test the hypothesis that limited English proficiency would be associated with lower video use compared with telephone, especially among patients without previous video visit experience
Yu and Hagens [58], 2022, Canada	Quantitative cross-sectional web survey	Across Canada	2303 older adult Canadians	To investigate socioeconomic disparities in the demand for and use of web-based visits during the COVID-19 pandemic among older adults in Canada
Schifeling et al [59], 2020, United States	Quantitative retrospective, cross-sectional analysis	2 primary clinics in Colorado	192 appointments reviewed	To determine (1) whether video visits had longer duration, more visit diagnoses, and more discussions than telephone visits in the rapid implementation of telemedicine during the pandemic and (2) whether disparities in visit type existed based on patient characteristics
Sachs et al [60], 2021, United States	Quantitative cross-sectional analysis	Oregon Health and Science University	134,274 ambulatory patients	To evaluate for demographic disparities in the use of telehealth modalities
Broffman et al [61], 2022, United States	Quantitative cross-sectional analysis	Electronic platform across the United States	2847 men	To examine the complex relationship between individual and environmental characteristics, broadband access, device type, and telehealth use as it relates to the digital divide
Zachrison et al [62], 2021, United States	Quantitative retrospective analysis	Electronic health record data across the Northeastern United States	N=1,241,313 individual health records	To describe patient characteristics associated with successful transition from in-person to web-based care and video vs audio-only participation

^aDOTW: Doctors of the World.