-
International Journal of Medical... Nov 2022Long-term care combined with complex follow-up processes is among the essential needs of lung transplantation. Therefore, Telemedicine-based strategies can provide an... (Review)
Review
OBJECTIVES
Long-term care combined with complex follow-up processes is among the essential needs of lung transplantation. Therefore, Telemedicine-based strategies can provide an effective approach for both patients and clinicians by applying remote patient monitoring. Hence, the main objective of this study was to investigate Telemedicine and telehealth usage in lung transplantation.
METHOD
A systematic review was conducted in four databases using keywords. Eligible studies were all English papers that developed Telemedicine-based programs to enhance patient care in lung organ transplantation. The interventions were analyzed analysis to determine the main descriptive areas. The quality of the included articles was evaluated using Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool (MMAT) tool by two authors.
RESULTS
Of the 261 retrieved articles, 27 met our inclusion criteria. Of these, 22 studies were devoted to the post-transplantation phase. All articles were published from 2002 to 2021 and the trend of publications has increased in recent years. Most of the studies were conducted in the United States and Canada. All eligible studies can be categorized into five types of Telemedicine interventions, 15 (55.56%) articles devoted to Telemonitoring, four (14.81%) for Teleconsultation, four (14.81%) articles for Telerehabilitation, three (11.11%) articles for Telespirometery, and one (3.70%) article were done regarding Tele-education.
CONCLUSION
This integrated review provides researchers with a new understanding of Telemedicine-based care solutions. Findings show that remote patient care in lung transplantation includes various aspects, especially self-care improvement.
Topics: Humans; Lung Transplantation; Monitoring, Physiologic; Patient-Centered Care; Remote Consultation; Telemedicine; United States
PubMed: 36067628
DOI: 10.1016/j.ijmedinf.2022.104861 -
International Journal of Environmental... Mar 2023Telemedicine is a process of delivering health care using information and communication technologies. Audit and feedback (A&F) constitute a systematic intervention that... (Review)
Review
Telemedicine is a process of delivering health care using information and communication technologies. Audit and feedback (A&F) constitute a systematic intervention that is aimed at collecting data, which are subsequently compared with reference standards and then returned to health care operators through feedback meetings. The aim of this review is to analyse different audit procedures on and by mean of telemedicine services and to identify a practice that is more effective than the others. Systematic searches were performed in three databases evaluating studies focusing on clinical audits performed on and by means of telemedicine systems. Twenty-five studies were included in the review. Most of them focused on telecounselling services with an audit and a maximum duration of one year. Recipients of the audit were telemedicine systems and service users (general practitioners, referring doctors, and patients). Data resulting from the audit were inherent to the telemedicine service. The overall data collected concerned the number of teleconsultations, service activity, reasons for referral, response times, follow-up, reasons why treatment was not completed, technical issues, and other information specific to each telemedicine service. Only two of the considered studies dealt with organizational aspects, and of these, only one analysed communicative aspects. The complexity and heterogeneity of the treatments and services provided meant that no index of uniformity could be identified. Certainly, some audits were performed in an overlapping manner in the different studies, and these show that although attention is often paid to workers' opinions, needs, and issues, little interest was shown in communicative/organizational and team dynamics. Given the importance and influence that communication has in teamwork and care settings, an audit protocol that takes into account intra- and extra-team communication processes could be essential to improving the well-being of operators and the quality of the service provided.
Topics: Humans; Telemedicine; Delivery of Health Care; Clinical Audit; Remote Consultation; Health Facilities
PubMed: 36901491
DOI: 10.3390/ijerph20054484 -
Frontiers in Public Health 2022Telemedicine as a tool that can reduce potential disease spread and fill a gap in healthcare has been increasingly applied during the COVID-19 pandemic. Many studies...
BACKGROUND
Telemedicine as a tool that can reduce potential disease spread and fill a gap in healthcare has been increasingly applied during the COVID-19 pandemic. Many studies have summarized telemedicine's technologies or the diseases' applications. However, these studies were reviewed separately. There is a lack of a comprehensive overview of the telemedicine technologies, application areas, and medical service types.
OBJECTIVE
We aimed to investigate the research direction of telemedicine at COVID-19 and to clarify what kind of telemedicine technology is used in what diseases, and what medical services are provided by telemedicine.
METHODS
Publications addressing telemedicine in COVID-19 were retrieved from the PubMed database. To extract bibliographic information and do a bi-clustering analysis, we used Bicomb and gCLUTO. The co-occurrence networks of diseases, technology, and healthcare services were then constructed and shown using R-studio and the Gephi tool.
RESULTS
We retrieved 5,224 research papers on telemedicine at COVID-19 distributed among 1460 journals. Most articles were published in (166/5,224, 3.18%). The United States published the most articles on telemedicine. The research clusters comprised 6 clusters, which refer to mental health, mhealth, cross-infection control, and self-management of diseases. The network analysis revealed a triple relation with diseases, technologies, and health care services with 303 nodes and 5,664 edges. The entity "delivery of health care" was the node with the highest betweenness centrality at 6,787.79, followed by "remote consultation" (4,395.76) and "infection control" (3,700.50).
CONCLUSIONS
The results of this study highlight widely use of telemedicine during COVID-19. Most studies relate to the delivery of health care and mental health services. Technologies were primarily mobile devices to deliver health care, remote consultation, control infection, and contact tracing. The study assists researchers in comprehending the knowledge structure in this sector, enabling them to discover critical topics and choose the best match for their survey work.
Topics: Bibliometrics; COVID-19; Delivery of Health Care; Humans; Pandemics; Telemedicine; United States
PubMed: 35719666
DOI: 10.3389/fpubh.2022.908756 -
International Journal of Medical... Sep 2023Addressing demands and shortages in healthcare supply, especially care in nursing homes, applying telemedicine represents a promising approach. However, the patients'...
BACKGROUND
Addressing demands and shortages in healthcare supply, especially care in nursing homes, applying telemedicine represents a promising approach. However, the patients' acceptance and willingness to use telemedicine are necessary prerequisites for a sustainable integration within the medical supply structure.
METHOD
Therefore, this online survey study empirically (N = 203) investigates potential patients' attitudes towards telemedicine and their impact on the acceptance and perception of telemedical consultations being applied in nursing homes. Beyond that, using telemedicine in acute situations and for regular consultations is compared.
RESULTS
The results show three different patterns of attitudes towards telemedicine affecting the evaluation of telemedical consultations in both, acute and regular consultations.
CONCLUSION
The insights enable concrete recommendations for the integration of telemedicine in healthcare supply adressing the individual needs of potential patients.
Topics: Humans; Trust; Telemedicine; Surveys and Questionnaires; Attitude; Emotions
PubMed: 37307720
DOI: 10.1016/j.ijmedinf.2023.105116 -
BMC Health Services Research Aug 2020Health, healthcare, and healthcare system problems within the developing world are well recognised. eHealth, the use of Information and Communications Technologies (ICT)... (Review)
Review
BACKGROUND
Health, healthcare, and healthcare system problems within the developing world are well recognised. eHealth, the use of Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) for health, is frequently suggested as one means by which to ameliorate such problems. However, to identify and implement the most appropriate ehealth solutions requires development of a thoughtful and broadly evidence-informed strategy. Most published strategies focus on health informatics solutions, neglecting the potential for other aspects of ehealth (telehealth, telemedicine, elearning, and ecommerce). This study examined the setting in Botswana to determine the need for a telemedicine-specific strategy.
METHODS
A situational assessment of ehealth activities in Botswana was performed through a scoping review of the scientific and grey literature using specified search terms to July 2018; an interview with an official from the major mhealth stakeholder; and benchtop review of policies and other relevant Government documents including the country's current draft eHealth Strategy.
RESULTS
Thirty-nine papers were reviewed. Various ehealth technologies have been applied within Botswana. These include Skype for educational activities, instant messaging (WhatsApp for telepathology; SMS for transmission of laboratory test results, patient appointment reminders, and invoicing and bill payment), and robotics for dermatopathology. In addition health informatics technologies have been used for surveillance, monitoring, and access to information by healthcare workers. The number of distinct health information systems has been reduced from 37 to 12, and 9 discrete EMRs remain active within the public health institutions. Many infrastructural issues were identified. A critical assessment of the current draft ehealth strategy document for Botswana showed limitations. Many telemedicine services have been introduced over the years (addressing cervical cancer screening, teledermatology, teleradiology, oral medicine and eye screening), but only one project was confirmed to be active and being scaled up with the intervention of the Government.
CONCLUSIONS
Botswana's draft 'ehealth' strategy will not, in and of itself, nurture innovative growth in the application of telemedicine initiatives, which currently are fragmented and stalled. This lack of focus is preventing telemedicine's recognised potential from being leveraged. A specific Telemedicine Strategy, aligned with and supportive of the pre-existing ehealth strategy, would provide the necessary focus, stimulus, and guidance.
Topics: Botswana; Health Services Needs and Demand; Humans; Telemedicine
PubMed: 32843017
DOI: 10.1186/s12913-020-05653-0 -
Texas Medicine Aug 2019Recent trends and new TMA-backed laws are about to reshape physicians' practices when it comes to implementing telemedicine.
Recent trends and new TMA-backed laws are about to reshape physicians' practices when it comes to implementing telemedicine.
Topics: Attitude of Health Personnel; Humans; Practice Patterns, Physicians'; Telemedicine; Texas
PubMed: 31369135
DOI: No ID Found -
Telemedicine Companies Providing Prescription-Only Medications: Pros, Cons, and Proposed Guidelines.Obstetrics and Gynecology Nov 2019In the past few years, there has been a significant increase in the number of direct-to-consumer telehealth companies offering prescription medications to women....
In the past few years, there has been a significant increase in the number of direct-to-consumer telehealth companies offering prescription medications to women. Leveraging technology, these companies have the potential to improve access to care and ensure that women have access to prescription-only medications in a convenient fashion. However, it is important to ensure that they are doing so in a safe, patient-centered way that observes evidence-based prescribing guidelines. In this article, we discuss the pros and cons of direct-to-consumer telehealth companies offering prescription medicine and suggest several guidelines to ensure that women are being cared for in an appropriate way.
Topics: Drug Prescriptions; Health Services Accessibility; Humans; Pharmaceutical Services; Prescription Drugs; Quality Improvement; Risk Assessment; Telemedicine; United States; Women's Health Services
PubMed: 31599848
DOI: 10.1097/AOG.0000000000003529 -
Survey of Ophthalmology 2021We review the use of telemedicine in glaucoma and its possible roles in the COVID-19 outbreak. We performed a literature search of published human studies on... (Review)
Review
We review the use of telemedicine in glaucoma and its possible roles in the COVID-19 outbreak. We performed a literature search of published human studies on teleglaucoma on May 12, 2020, using search terms including "telemedicine" and "glaucoma" that were in English and published over the prior 10 years. This search strategy yielded a total of 14 relevant articles after manual curation. Of the 14 articles, 4 were from the same randomized control trial, 7 were prospective studies, 2 were retrospective studies, 1 was descriptive analysis, and 1 was cost-effective analysis. Seven discussed the common ophthalmologic measurements used in teleglaucoma. Four demonstrated the cost effectiveness of the use of teleglaucoma, and 3 articles investigated patient satisfaction with the use of teleglaucoma. Three articles investigated the correlation between teleglaucoma and face-to-face clinics. Five articles discussed the current use and opportunities of teleglaucoma. When compared to in-person care, teleglaucoma is more time and cost-effective, shows high patient satisfaction and fair to good agreement with in-person care; however, there is great variation in the reported sensitivity of glaucoma screening, warranting further studies to establish its efficacy. For glaucoma management, both the sensitivity and specificity must be further improved before it could be put into extensive use. Nevertheless, it is worthwhile to explore the possible extensive application of teleglaucoma in monitoring "glaucoma suspects" and maintaining glaucoma follow-up during a pandemic outbreak to reduce the risk of transmission of infection.
Topics: COVID-19; Delivery of Health Care; Disease Outbreaks; Glaucoma; Health Services Accessibility; Humans; Ocular Hypertension; Ophthalmology; Prospective Studies; Remote Consultation; Retrospective Studies; SARS-CoV-2; Telemedicine
PubMed: 33811912
DOI: 10.1016/j.survophthal.2021.03.008 -
Current Allergy and Asthma Reports Aug 2020The goal of this paper was to provide a narrative review of human factors considerations for telemedicine. It also sought to provide readers a foundation of human... (Review)
Review
PURPOSE OF REVIEW
The goal of this paper was to provide a narrative review of human factors considerations for telemedicine. It also sought to provide readers a foundation of human factors thinking and methods that could be employed within their own practice.
RECENT FINDINGS
There are only a handful of articles that discuss the importance of user-centered design and human factors principles in relation to telemedicine systems. Most articles come to the conclusion that design flaws could have been avoided by involving stakeholders in the design and implementation of telemedicine. However, many of them lack the guidance for those who find themselves having to choose, implement, or use unwieldy systems. With this in mind, this paper provides a series of human factors principles, real-world questions, methods, and resources for those who may find themselves considering, implementing, sustaining, or using telemedicine in their own healthcare settings.
Topics: Humans; Surveys and Questionnaires; Telemedicine
PubMed: 32862299
DOI: 10.1007/s11882-020-00965-x -
Journal of the American College of... Jun 2020
Topics: Telemedicine; Wearable Electronic Devices
PubMed: 32475633
DOI: 10.1016/j.jacc.2020.05.002