Digital geographies of care: Telehealth landscapes of addiction treatment during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has created new digital health care landscapes for the management of substance use and misuse. While telehealth was prohibited for addiction treatment prior to the pandemic, the severity of COVID-19 precipitated telehealth expansion for the delivery of individual and group-based treatment. Research has highlighted benefits and challenges of telehealth; however, little is known about the impacts of telehealth on the quality, use, and effectiveness of treatment. Fewer studies examine how these emerging digital geographies of care transform the spaces and landscapes of substance misuse. This article examines how telehealth affects landscapes of opioid use disorder care in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Kentucky during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our findings reveal that while telehealth extends access to treatment for opioid use disorder (OUD), it also creates new care inequities within and between providers and clientele that can undermine effective care and recovery.