Remote GP Consultations Reach One in Five Visits in Norway, Registry Study Finds

More than one in five general practitioner consultations in Norway now takes place without a face-to-face meeting. A population-based registry study covering every GP consultation conducted in the country in 2023 found that 21 percent of the 16,897,833 recorded consultations were delivered remotely, whether by telephone, video or text. The researchers defined frequent users as patients with ten or more GP consultations of any kind during the year, combining remote and physical visits.

Their mean proportion of remote consultations, calculated over all of their consultations, was 29 percent, roughly double the 14 percent observed among non-frequent users, who represented 91 percent of the patient population. Among these occasional users, the majority had no remote contact with their GP at all: 69 percent did not have a single remote consultation in 2023. The registry data also revealed clear demographic and organisational patterns.

Patients living in larger municipalities had higher proportions of remote consultations, as did those who received several sick leaves during the year. In contrast, patients who had seen more than one GP over the course of the year were less likely to use remote services. Diagnosis patterns added further nuance.

Remote consultations were used across most diagnostic categories, but the mix differed between the two groups. Frequent users had more remote consultations for musculoskeletal and psychological conditions, whereas respiratory diagnoses were more prevalent in remote consultations among non-frequent users. The study was a retrospective descriptive analysis of the KUHR database, the Norwegian Control and Payment of Health Reimbursement Database, with diagnoses classified according to the International Classification of Primary Care, second edition (ICPC-2).

Because it is based on descriptive statistics of routinely collected reimbursement data, the design can document who used remote care and for what, but it cannot explain why. The authors are explicit on this limitation: the study cannot determine whether the observed differences reflect genuine differences in need, patient preferences, or disparities in access to remote consultations. That breadth makes the result a useful benchmark: remote care is not confined to a tech-savvy minority but is woven into consultations for respiratory, musculoskeletal and psychological problems alike, which the authors interpret as an indication of good integration into general practice.

The authors call for future research to investigate whether the quality and effectiveness of remote consultations are comparable to physical consultations.

Subject of Research: Use of remote GP consultations among frequent and non-frequent users in Norway

Article Title: Use of remote consultations among frequent and non-frequent users of general practitioner consultations. A population-based registry study

Article References: Kristiansen, E., Austad, B., Bergmo, T. S., Norberg, B. L., Vie, G. Å., & Zanaboni, P. (2026). Use of remote consultations among frequent and non-frequent users of general practitioner consultations. A population-based registry study. BMC Health Services Research. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-026-15441-x

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1186/s12913-026-15441-x

Keywords: remote consultations, general practice, primary care, Norway, registry study, frequent users, telemedicine, health services research, KUHR database, ICPC-2, digital health, remote