SynthesisJMIR mHealth and uHealth2019
Using Telemedicine to Diagnose Surgical Site Infections in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: Systematic Review.
Synthesis in JMIR mHealth and uHealth, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers, 3 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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 41 citations in OpenAlex.
- Readiness for implementation of novel digital health interventions for postoperative monitoring: a systematic review and clinical innovation network analysis.The Lancet. Digital health · 2023Pooled it
- Patient Follow-up After Orthopaedic Outreach Trips - Do We Know Whether Patients are Improving?World journal of surgery · 2022Pooled it
- Development stage of novel digital health interventions for postoperative monitoring: protocol of a systematic review.BMJ surgery, interventions, & health technologies · 2022Pooled it
- Expanding the Evidence on the Safety and Efficiency of 2-Way Text Messaging-Based Telehealth for Voluntary Medical Male Circumcision Follow-up Compared With In-Person Reviews: Randomized Controlled Trial in Rural and Urban South Africa.Journal of medical Internet research · 2023Trial
- The Effect and Feasibility of mHealth-Supported Surgical Site Infection Diagnosis by Community Health Workers After Cesarean Section in Rural Rwanda: Randomized Controlled Trial.JMIR mHealth and uHealth · 2022Trial
- Epidemiology of Surgical Site Infections: Incidence and Risk Factors at Jimma University Specialized and Comprehensive Hospital, Ethiopia.Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Digital health to strengthen pediatric surgical referral and follow-up in Low-resource settings: progress, gaps, and future directions.Frontiers in surgery · 2026Review
- Acceptability of telemedicine for early surgical site infection diagnosis after cesarean delivery in rural Rwanda: a qualitative study.Maternal health, neonatology and perinatology · 2025Article
- Towards the elimination of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: a Lancet Commission.Lancet (London, England) · 2022Review
- Harmonized procedure coding system for surgical procedures and analysis of surgical site infections (SSI) of five European countries.BMC medical research methodology · 2022Observational
- Implementation and Experiences of Telehealth: Balancing Policies With Practice in Countries of South Asia, Kuwait, and the European Union.Interactive journal of medical research · 2022Article
- Association Between Neighborhood-Level Social Determinants of Health and Access to Pediatric Appendicitis Care.JAMA network open · 2022Article
- Parental Post-operative Telephone Follow-Up After Paediatric Day Case Surgery.World journal of surgery · 2021Article
- The revival of telemedicine in the age of COVID-19: Benefits and impediments for Pakistan.Annals of medicine and surgery (2012) · 2021Article
- Article
- The Recent Progress and Applications of Digital Technologies in Healthcare: A Review.International journal of telemedicine and applications · 2020Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundA high burden of preventable morbidity and mortality due to surgical site infections (SSIs) occurs in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), and most of these SSIs occur following discharge. There is a high loss to follow-up due to a wide geographical spread of patients, and cost of travel can result in delayed and missed diagnoses.
objectiveThis review analyzes the literature surrounding the use of telemedicine and assesses the feasibility of using mobile phone technology to both diagnose SSIs remotely in LMICs and to overcome social barriers.
methodsA literature search was performed using Medline, Embase, CINAHL, PubMed, Web of Science, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials and Google Scholar. Included were English language papers reporting the use of telemedicine for detecting SSIs in comparison to the current practice of direct clinical diagnosis. Papers were excluded if infections were not due to surgical wounds, or if SSIs were not validated with in-person diagnosis. The primary outcome of this review was to review the feasibility of telemedicine for remote SSI detection.
resultsA total of 404 articles were screened and three studies were identified that reported on 2082 patients across three countries. All studies assessed the accuracy of remote diagnosis of SSIs using predetermined telephone questionnaires. In total, 44 SSIs were accurately detected using telemedicine and an additional 14 were picked up on clinical follow-up.
conclusionsThe use of telemedicine has shown to be a feasible method in remote diagnosis of SSIs. Telemedicine is a useful adjunct for clinical practice in LMICs to decrease loss to postsurgical follow-up.
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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.