SynthesisBMJ (Clinical research ed.)2002
Systematic review of cost effectiveness studies of telemedicine interventions.
Synthesis in BMJ (Clinical research ed.), 2002. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT00221455 (The Potential of Technology to Improve Chronic Disease Management and Quality of Care), which is not on this map. Cited by 120 papers, 23 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
The Potential of Technology to Improve Chronic Disease Management and Quality of Care
Who cites it
120 citing papers in PubMed, 23 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 525 citations in OpenAlex.
- Cost-Effectiveness of Virtual Emergency Care Models: Systematic Review.JMIR mHealth and uHealth · 2026Pooled it
- Digital Interventions for Social Participation in Adults with Long-term Physical Conditions: A Systematic Review.Journal of medical systems · 2023Pooled it
- The Role of Optometry in the Delivery of Eye Care via Telehealth: A Systematic Literature Review.Telemedicine journal and e-health : the official journal of the American Telemedicine Association · 2022Pooled it
- Economic Evaluation of Pharmacist-Led Digital Health Interventions: A Systematic Review.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Pooled it
- Telerehabilitation for individuals with spinal cord injury in low-and middle-income countries: a systematic review of the literature.Spinal cord · 2022Pooled it
- The Economic Impact of Artificial Intelligence in Health Care: Systematic Review.Journal of medical Internet research · 2020Pooled it
- Cost-effectiveness analysis of malaria rapid diagnostic tests: a systematic review.Infectious diseases of poverty · 2019Pooled it
- Telerehabilitation for Stroke Survivors: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Journal of medical Internet research · 2018Pooled it
- What is the economic evidence for mHealth? A systematic review of economic evaluations of mHealth solutions.PloS one · 2017Pooled it
- Telemedicine Technologies for Diabetes in Pregnancy: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Journal of medical Internet research · 2016Pooled it
- Cost-utility and cost-effectiveness studies of telemedicine, electronic, and mobile health systems in the literature: a systematic review.Telemedicine journal and e-health : the official journal of the American Telemedicine Association · 2015Pooled it
- Clinical- and cost-effectiveness of telemedicine in type 2 diabetes mellitus: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Medicine · 2014Pooled it
- Can aging in place be cost effective? A systematic review.PloS one · 2014Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Telehealthcare for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: Cochrane Review and meta-analysis.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2012Pooled it
- Telemedicine for the support of parents of high-risk newborn infants.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2012Pooled it
- Telehealthcare for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2011Pooled it
- Telehealthcare for asthma.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2010Pooled it
- A systematic review of economic analyses of telehealth services using real time video communication.BMC health services research · 2010Pooled it
- Smart home technologies for health and social care support.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2008Pooled it
60 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
- Commented on by
Authors and funding
6 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectivesTo systematically review cost benefit studies of telemedicine.
designSystematic review of English language, peer reviewed journal articles. DATA SOURCES: Searches of Medline, Embase, ISI citation indexes, and database of Telemedicine Information Exchange. STUDIES SELECTED: 55 of 612 identified articles that presented actual cost benefit data.
main outcome measuresScientific quality of reports assessed by use of an established instrument for adjudicating on the quality of economic analyses.
results557 articles without cost data categorised by topic. 55 articles with data initially categorised by cost variables employed in the study and conclusions. Only 24/55 (44%) studies met quality criteria justifying inclusion in a quality review. 20/24 (83%) restricted to simple cost comparisons. No study used cost utility analysis, the conventional means of establishing the "value for money" that a therapeutic intervention represents. Only 7/24 (29%) studies attempted to explore the level of utilisation that would be needed for telemedicine services to compare favourably with traditionally organised health care. None addressed this question in sufficient detail to adequately answer it. 15/24 (62.5%) of articles reviewed here provided no details of sensitivity analysis, a method all economic analyses should incorporate.
conclusionThere is no good evidence that telemedicine is a cost effective means of delivering health care.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.