Castillo-Rodenas, MartaVicente Gómez, José ÁngelFuster-Casanovas, AïnaMiró Catalina, QueraltVidal-Alaball, JosepLópez Seguí, Francesc2025-04-172025-04-172024Castillo-Rodenas M, Vicente Gómez JÁ, Fuster-Casanovas A, Miró Catalina Q, Vidal-Alaball J, López Seguí F. Impact of COVID-19 on the pediatric primary care model in Catalonia: analysis of changes in the number and type of face-to-face and remote visits. JMIR Pediatr Parent. 2024;7:e49943. DOI: 10.2196/499432561-6722http://hdl.handle.net/10230/70164Background: The outbreak of COVID-19 has turned the care model of health systems around the world upside down. The health care crisis has led to opportunities for digital health to deliver quality care, and the system has been redirected toward telemedicine. In Catalonia, Spain, as of March 2020, the pattern of visits in primary care pediatric consultations changed, such that face-to-face visits decreased in favor of non–face-to-face visits. Objective: This study aimed to analyze variations in the types of pediatric visits in primary care centers in Catalonia before and after the onset of COVID-19. Methods: This was a descriptive observational study based on administrative data. The number and type of visits to primary care pediatric services in Catalonia between January 2019 and December 2022 were studied. Results: A drop of more than 80% in face-to-face visits and an increase of up to 15 times in remote visits were observed as of March 2020 compared to the previous year. Subsequently, the face-to-face attendance rate began to recover, although it did not reach the same rate as before COVID-19. Non–face-to-face visits were maintained, representing more than 20% of the total after more than 2 years of the pandemic. Conclusions: COVID-19 has been the trigger for a transition in the types of visits to primary care pediatric services. The COVID-19 pandemic was a clear catalyst for the integration of telemedicine in Catalan pediatric health care. In this context, although face-to-face consultations have recovered in absolute numbers, after the pandemic period, the weight of telemedicine has increased.application/pdfengThis is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work, first published in JMIR Pediatrics and Parenting, is properly cited. The complete bibliographic information, a link to the original publication on https://pediatrics.jmir.org, as well as this copyright and license information must be included.info:eu-repo/semantics/articlehttp://dx.doi.org/10.2196/49943COVID-19Remote consultationPrimary health careDigital healthPediatricFace-to-faceTelemedicineinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess