ArticleBMC health services research2009
Teleconsultation service to improve healthcare in rural areas: acceptance, organizational impact and appropriateness.
Article in BMC health services research, 2009. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 29 papers.
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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
29 citing papers in PubMed, 74 citations in OpenAlex.
- Impact of the implementation of an online network support tool among clinicians of primary health care and specialists: ECOPIH Project.BMC family practice · 2013Trial
- Acceptability of Patient Portals and Phone Consultations in Hybrid Primary Care: A Slovenian Multi-Centre Pilot Study.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Cost minimization analysis of digital-first healthcare pathways in primary care.NPJ digital medicine · 2025Article
- How primary and tertiary care services collaborate in urgent care delivery: an evaluation of general practice advice lines.BMC primary care · 2024Article
- The Role of Telemedicine in Improving Hypertension Management Outcomes: A Systematic Review.Cureus · 2024Review
- Digitally-mediated coordination in healthcare: the effects of teleconsultation on doctor-to-doctor relational coordination.BMC health services research · 2024Article
- How Is Telehealth Currently Being Utilized to Help in Hypertension Management within Primary Healthcare Settings? A Scoping Review.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2024Article
- Decreasing hospitalizations through geriatric hotlines: a prospective French multicenter study of people aged 75 and above.BMC geriatrics · 2023Observational
- Infectious disease hotlines to provide advice to general practitioners: a prospective study.BMC health services research · 2023Observational
- Two-stage robust telemedicine assignment problem with uncertain service duration and no-show behaviours.Computers & industrial engineering · 2022Article
- Telehealth in Primary Health Care: A Scoping Review of the Literature.Perspectives in health information managemen · 2022Article
- The general public's perspectives on telemedicine during the COVID-19 pandemic in Korea: analysis of a nationwide survey.Epidemiology and health · 2022Article
- Characteristics and Outcomes of Physician-to-Physician Telephone Consultation Programs: Environmental Scan.JMIR formative research · 2021Review
- Are Surgical Patients Satisfied With Remote Consultations? A Comparison of Remote Versus Conventional Outpatient Clinic Follow-Up for Surgical Patients: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials.Journal of patient experience · 2021Article
- Patient and Provider Satisfaction With Pediatric Urology Telemedicine Clinic.Journal of patient experience · 2021Article
- Telephone consultations with otolaryngology - head and neck surgery reduced emergency visits and specialty consultations in northern Alberta.Journal of otolaryngology - head & neck surgery = Le Journal d'oto-rhino-laryngologie et de chirurgie cervico-faciale · 2020Article
- Efficiency as a determinant of loyalty among users of a Community of Clinical Practice: a comparative study between the implementation and consolidation phases.BMC family practice · 2020Article
- Electronic Consultation in Primary Care Between Providers and Patients: Systematic Review.JMIR medical informatics · 2019Review
- The private healthcare market and the sustainability of an innovative community nurses programme based on social entrepreneurship - CoNSENSo project.BMC health services research · 2018Article
- Keys to success of a community of clinical practice in primary care: a qualitative evaluation of the ECOPIH project.BMC family practice · 2018Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundNowadays, new organisational strategies should be identified to improve primary care and its link with secondary care in terms of efficacy and timeliness of interventions thus preventing unnecessary hospital accesses and costs saving for the health system. The purpose of this study is to assess the effects of the use of teleconsultation by general practitioners in rural areas.
methodsGeneral practitioners were provided with a teleconsultation service from 2006 to 2008 to obtain a second opinion for cardiac, dermatological and diabetic problems. Access, acceptance, organisational impact, effectiveness and economics data were collected. Clinical and access data were systematically entered in a database while acceptance and organisational data were evaluated through ad hoc questionnaires.
resultsThere were 957 teleconsultation contacts which resulted in access to health care services for 812 symptomatic patients living in 30 rural communities. Through the teleconsultation service, 48 general practitioners improved the appropriateness of primary care and the integration with secondary care. In fact, the level of concordance between intentions and consultations for cardiac problems was equal to 9%, in 86% of the cases the service entailed a saving of resources and in 5% of the cases, it improved the timeliness. 95% of the GPs considered the overall quality positively. For a future routine use of this service, trust in specialists, duration and workload of teleconsultations and reimbursement should be taken into account.
conclusionsManagerial and policy implications emerged mainly related to the support to GPs in the provision of high quality primary care and decision-making processes in promoting similar services.
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.