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Anatolian Journal of Cardiology Oct 2019
Review
Topics: Cardiology; Forecasting; Humans; Telemedicine
PubMed: 31670712
DOI: 10.14744/AnatolJCardiol.2019.12525 -
The Australasian Journal of Dermatology Aug 2020Despite the potential of teledermatology to increase access to dermatology services and improve patient care, it is not widely practised in Australia. In an effort to... (Review)
Review
Despite the potential of teledermatology to increase access to dermatology services and improve patient care, it is not widely practised in Australia. In an effort to increase uptake of teledermatology by Australian dermatologists and support best practice, guidelines for teledermatology for the Australian context have been developed by The University of Queensland's Centre for Online Health in collaboration with The Australasian College of Dermatologists' E-Health Committee. The guidelines are presented in two sections: 1. Guidelines and 2. Notes to support their application in practice, when feasible and appropriate. Content was last updated March 2020 and includes modalities of teledermatology; patient selection and consent; imaging; quality and safety; privacy and security; communication; and documentation and retention of clinical images. The guidelines educate dermatologists about the benefits and limitations of telehealth while articulating how to enhance patient care and reduce risk when practicing teledermatology.
Topics: Australia; Clinical Competence; Confidentiality; Dermatology; Documentation; Humans; Informed Consent; Interdisciplinary Communication; Liability, Legal; Patient Selection; Photography; Privacy; Telemedicine
PubMed: 32363572
DOI: 10.1111/ajd.13301 -
Current Pain and Headache Reports Aug 2022Chronic pain in the USA has presented with higher prevalence rates among women, older adults, those unemployed, living in poverty, living in rural environments, and... (Review)
Review
PURPOSE OF REVIEW
Chronic pain in the USA has presented with higher prevalence rates among women, older adults, those unemployed, living in poverty, living in rural environments, and adults with public health insurance. The COVID-19 pandemic has heavily played into the biopsychosocial model of pain. Consequently, greater impacts have affected patients with mood disorders, opioid abuse, and chronic pain. Concurrently, telemedicine has become a popular vehicle during the COVID-19 pandemic in continuing to provide quality patient care. The purpose of this article is to review the benefits and challenges related to the delivery of telemedicine for patients with chronic pain.
RECENT FINDINGS
The benefits of telemedicine have been examined from patient psychosocial and convenience factors as well in relation to medical practice efficiency. Within chronic pain management, one of telemedicine's most effective utilization is seen via post-injection follow-up and assessment of further necessary interventions. Challenges also exist in this framework, from lack of physical examination and convenient close therapeutic monitoring and drug screening, to technological and resource cost capabilities of older and disadvantaged chronic pain patients, to barriers in establishing patient-provider rapport. During the COVID-19 pandemic, telehealth services were covered at rates comparable to in-person visits. Health insurance coverage and payment were major barriers for implementation of telemedicine prior to the pandemic. It is difficult to predict ongoing coverage and payment of telehealth services, although the benefits in terms of access and patient satisfaction have clearly been demonstrated. While telemedicine has proven to be a very useful tool with a wealth of advantages, the delivery of virtual healthcare for chronic pain poses a set of challenges that will need to be met to ensure the quality and standard of care continue to be upheld.
Topics: Aged; COVID-19; Chronic Pain; Female; Humans; Pandemics; Patient Satisfaction; Telemedicine
PubMed: 35751799
DOI: 10.1007/s11916-022-01067-1 -
International Journal of Environmental... Aug 2022Telemedicine is becoming a standard method of consultation, and the COVID-19 pandemic has increased its need. Telemedicine is suitable for non-communicable diseases... (Review)
Review
Telemedicine is becoming a standard method of consultation, and the COVID-19 pandemic has increased its need. Telemedicine is suitable for non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in the pediatric population, as these are chronic conditions that affect many children worldwide. The aim of this study was to analyze the bibliometric parameters of publications on the use of telemedicine for the most common NCDs in children before and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Following the electronic search, 585 records were selected. "Metabolic diseases" was the most frequent topic before and after the pandemic, accounting for 34.76% in 2017-2019 and 33.97% in 2020-2022. The average IF of the journals from which records were retrieved was 5.46 ± 4.62 before and 4.58 ± 2.82 after the pandemic, with no significant variation. The number of citations per reference averaged 14.71 ± 17.16 in 2017-2019 (95% CI: 12.07; 17.36) and 5.54 ± 13.71 in 2020-2022 (95% CI: 4.23; 6.86). Asthma, metabolic diseases, and neurodevelopmental disorders were the most explored topics. A relevant finding concerns the increasing number of observational studies after the pandemic, with a reduction of the interventional studies. The latter type of study should be recommended as it can increase the evaluation of new strategies for the management of NCDs.
Topics: Bibliometrics; COVID-19; Child; Humans; Pandemics; Remote Consultation; Telemedicine
PubMed: 36011421
DOI: 10.3390/ijerph19169787 -
Archives of Iranian Medicine Nov 2023Today, technology has an important impact on the development of medical services, especially during the outbreak of COVID-19. Telemedicine, known by terms such as... (Review)
Review
Today, technology has an important impact on the development of medical services, especially during the outbreak of COVID-19. Telemedicine, known by terms such as telehealth and digital health, refers to the utilization of technology to provide health care services at a distance that leads to improved monitoring, detecting and treatment of disease, and provision of individual care. It has been considered in various fields such as radiology, cardiology, pulmonology, psychiatry, emergency care and surgery. The most important advantages of using telemedicine are saving time for the doctor and the patient, reducing the cost of multiple visits to the doctor, reducing the spread of contagious diseases and caring for patients who cannot see a doctor, such as the elderly. In this paper, we review the research in the field of applying telemedicine, as well as its advantages and disadvantages. Next, we discuss the challenges in the field of using telemedicine which are privacy preserving, data security, cost of infrastructures, lack of physical examination and responsibility for patients' compensation. One of the most important challenges is privacy preserving of patients' information during transmission and process. We categorize and compare the various methods that have been proposed to protect peoples' privacy.
Topics: Humans; Aged; Privacy; Telemedicine; COVID-19; Emergency Medical Services
PubMed: 38310426
DOI: 10.34172/aim.2023.96 -
BMC Health Services Research Aug 2023Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, heart failure (HF) disease management programmes were predominantly delivered in-person, with telemedicine being uncommon. Covid-19...
BACKGROUND
Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, heart failure (HF) disease management programmes were predominantly delivered in-person, with telemedicine being uncommon. Covid-19 resulted in a rapid shift to "remote-by-default" clinic appointments in many organisations. We evaluated clinician and patient experiences of teleconsultations for HF.
METHODS
From 16th March 2020, all HF appointments at a specialist centre in the UK were telemedicine-by-default through a mixture of telephone and video consultations, with rare in-person appointments. HF clinicians and patients with HF were invited to participate in semi-structured interviews about their experiences. A purposive sampling technique was used. Interviews were conducted using Microsoft Teams®, recorded and transcribed verbatim. Narrative data were explored by thematic analysis. Clinicians and patients were interviewed until themes saturated.
RESULTS
Eight clinicians and eight patients with HF were interviewed before themes saturated. Five overarching themes emerged: 1) Time utilisation - telemedicine consultations saved patients time travelling to and waiting for appointments. Clinicians perceived them to be more efficient, but more administrative time was involved. 2) Clinical assessment - without physical examination, clinicians relied more on history, observations and test results; video calls were perceived as superior to telephone calls for remote assessment. Patients confident in self-monitoring tended to be more comfortable with telemedicine. 3) Communication and rapport - clinicians experienced difficulty establishing rapport with new patients by telephone, though video was better. Patients generally did not perceive that remote consultation affected their rapport with clinicians. 4) Technology - connection issues occasionally disrupted video consultations, but overall patients and clinicians found the technology easy to use. 5) Choice and flexibility - both patients and clinicians believed that the choice of modality should be situation-dependent.
CONCLUSIONS
Telemedicine HF consultations were more convenient for patients, saved them time, and were generally acceptable to clinicians, but changed workflows, consultation dynamics, and how clinical assessment was performed. Telemedicine should be used alongside in-person appointments in a "hybrid" model tailored to individual patients and settings.
Topics: Humans; Pandemics; COVID-19; Telemedicine; Remote Consultation; Heart Failure
PubMed: 37563576
DOI: 10.1186/s12913-023-09872-z -
Fertility and Sterility Dec 2020Telemedicine had been very slowly making inroads into standard clinical practice. The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in the rapid implementation of telemedicine... (Review)
Review
Telemedicine had been very slowly making inroads into standard clinical practice. The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in the rapid implementation of telemedicine across most practices. The efficiency and permanence of telemedicine services depends on a multitude of factors including technologic choices, governmental and insurance regulations, reimbursement policies, and staff and patient education and acceptance. Although challenges remain and the extent of implementation is still evolving, it is clear that telemedicine is here to stay and that all those involved in health care need to be familiar with its opportunities and challenges.
Topics: COVID-19; Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act; Humans; Insurance, Health, Reimbursement; Office Visits; Patient Education as Topic; Personnel Staffing and Scheduling; Reproductive Medicine; SARS-CoV-2; Telemedicine; United States
PubMed: 33280716
DOI: 10.1016/j.fertnstert.2020.10.049 -
Journal of Medical Internet Research Mar 2022Cancer is likely to remain the most prevalent noncommunicable disease in high-income countries with an older population. Interestingly, no review of attitudes toward... (Review)
Review
BACKGROUND
Cancer is likely to remain the most prevalent noncommunicable disease in high-income countries with an older population. Interestingly, no review of attitudes toward telemedicine among older adults has been performed. This is likely to be the group most affected by both cancer and the increasing use of technology in health care.
OBJECTIVE
We aimed to map research on the acceptance of telemedicine among older adults who are cancer patients.
METHODS
We conducted a scoping review. PubMed, EMBASE, PsycINFO, CINAHL, and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials were systematically searched from inception to September 2020. Articles were included if the study population had a mean or median age ≥65 years, with cancer diagnoses and if the study assessed patients' acceptance of a telemedicine intervention. Quantitative, qualitative, and mixed method studies were included.
RESULTS
Out of a total of 887 articles that were identified, 19 were included in the review. Interventions were delivered via telephone, videoconference, web portal, mobile app, wearable technology, and text messaging and included teleconsultation, monitoring and follow-up, psychosocial support and nursing care, and prompts. The most often cited facilitating factor was convenience. Other facilitators included an increase in telemedicine care accessibility, previous positive experiences of telemedicine, appropriate technical knowledge and support, decreased cost, physician recommendations, and privacy conferred by the telemedicine intervention. Barriers include a preference for conventional care along with negative perceptions of telemedicine, concerns about technical difficulties, and confidentiality concerns in the adoption of telemedicine.
CONCLUSIONS
None of the studies explored the ability of tailored interventions to address facilitators and barriers of the acceptance of telemedicine in order to increase its adoption by older adults. Facilitators and barriers will likely differ across different cultural contexts and by type of telemedicine; however, this is a gap in current knowledge. In-depth studies are necessary to determine if interventions could potentially address the barriers identified in this review, to increase acceptability.
Topics: Aged; Humans; Mobile Applications; Neoplasms; Telemedicine; Telephone; Text Messaging
PubMed: 35348462
DOI: 10.2196/28724 -
Diabetes & Metabolic Syndrome 2020With restrictions on face to face clinical consultations in the COVID-19 pandemic and the challenges faced by health care systems in delivering patient care, alternative... (Review)
Review
BACKGROUND
With restrictions on face to face clinical consultations in the COVID-19 pandemic and the challenges faced by health care systems in delivering patient care, alternative information technologies like telemedicine and smartphone are playing a key role.
AIMS
We assess the role and applications of smartphone technology as an extension of telemedicine in provide continuity of care to our patients and surveillance during the current COVID-19 pandemic.
METHODS
We have done a comprehensive review of the literature using suitable keywords on the search engines of PubMed, SCOPUS, Google Scholar and Research Gate in the first week of May 2020.
RESULTS
Through the published literature on this topic, we discuss role, common applications and its support in extended role of telemedicine technology in several aspects of current COVID-19 pandemic.
CONCLUSION
Smartphone technology on its own and as extension of telemedicine has significant applications in the current COVID-19 pandemic. As the smartphone technology further evolves with fifth generation cellular network expansion, it is going to play a key role in future of health medicine, patient referral, consultation, ergonomics and many other extended applications of health care.
Topics: Betacoronavirus; COVID-19; Coronavirus Infections; Delivery of Health Care; Humans; Inventions; Pandemics; Pneumonia, Viral; SARS-CoV-2; Smartphone; Telemedicine
PubMed: 32497963
DOI: 10.1016/j.dsx.2020.05.033 -
BMC Complementary Medicine and Therapies Aug 2023Telemedicine includes the delivery of health-care services and sharing of health information across distances. Past research has found that telemedicine can play a role... (Review)
Review
BACKGROUND
Telemedicine includes the delivery of health-care services and sharing of health information across distances. Past research has found that telemedicine can play a role in enhancing complementary, alternative, and integrative medicine (CAIM) while allowing the maintenance of cultural values and ancestral knowledge. This scoping review synthesized evidence regarding the use of telemedicine in the context of CAIM.
METHODS
Following Arksey and O'Malley's scoping review framework, CINAHL, PsycINFO, MEDLINE, EMBASE and AMED databases were searched systematically. The CADTH website was also searched for grey literature. Eligible articles included a CAIM practice or therapy offered through telemedicine, with no restrictions placed on the type of telemedicine technology used. Inductive thematic analysis was conducted to synthesise common themes among the included studies.
RESULTS
Sixty-two articles were included in this synthesis. The following themes emerged: 1) the practitioner view of CAIM delivered through telemedicine, 2) the patient view of CAIM delivered through telemedicine, and 3) the technological impacts of telemedicine delivery of CAIM.
CONCLUSIONS
Studies have shown that telemedicine delivery of CAIM is feasible, acceptable, and results in positive health outcomes. Some barriers remain such as the presence of chronic illness and morbidity, inability to form strong patient-provider relationships relative to face-to-face approaches, and technological difficulties. Future intervention research should focus on reducing such barriers, as well as explore which patient population would realize the greatest benefit from CAIM delivered via telemedicine, and the impact of interventions on providers and caregivers.
Topics: Humans; Integrative Medicine; Telemedicine
PubMed: 37533042
DOI: 10.1186/s12906-023-04100-x