Digital care and Covid-19: The scope for scaling up digital care in a time of an infectious pandemic in Sweden

The purpose of the research project is to provide evidence for the scope of scaling up effective, efficient, and safe digital care to patients in a time of an infectious disease epidemic.
The aims of the project are to i) evaluate the extent to which digital care has contributed to delivering necessary care to vulnerable patient groups while maintaining social distancing and reduced risk of infection; and ii) assess the technical, regulatory, and other capacity aspects for how digital care can be scaled up to respond to needs in an effective and sustained manner.

As the Covid-19 pandemic took off in Sweden the number of visits to health care clinics decreased. In parallel, the number of digital contacts to health care providers increased. The purpose of the research project is to study how digital care has been utilized during the pandemic.
The project consists of two parts: one is the analyze data to investigate the use of digital care and the other is to interview people with experience and knowledge of digital care about the role of digital care during the pandemic and in the future. By analyzing these issues, the project aims to be able to identify lessons for the future with respect to the role of digital care, both during a pandemic and during normal times.