If you wanted to talk with your doctor before the pandemic, you generally had to schedule an in-person appointment. But the sudden, rapid expansion of telehealth means patients generally can now text or email their health care providers.
"When you wanted to get a Zoom visit or an audio visit, you needed to sign up for the patient portal, and I think a lot of people became aware that they could message for the first time" during the pandemic, says A Jay Holmgren, a researcher in health care information technology at the University of California San Francisco.
