Evidence map›Paper›PMID 32816942›Full record

ReviewFamily medicine and community health2020

Telemedicine, the current COVID-19 pandemic and the future: a narrative review and perspectives moving forward in the USA.

Asim Kichloo, Michael Albosta, Kirk Dettloff, Farah Wani, Zain El-Amir, Jagmeet Singh, Michael Aljadah, Raja Chandra Chakinala, Ashok Kumar Kanugula, Shantanu Solanki and 1 more

Abstract readReview
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Review in Family medicine and community health, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 295 papers, 7 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
295citing papers in PubMed, 7 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from 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.

2 · The registry

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.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

295 citing papers in PubMed, 7 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.

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235 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

11 authors.

Asim KichlooInternal Medicine, Central Michigan University College of Medicine East Campus, Saginaw, Michigan, USA.
Michael AlbostaInternal Medicine, Central Michigan University College of Medicine East Campus, Saginaw, Michigan, USA albos1ms@cmich.edu.ORCID 0000-0003-4187-4911
Kirk DettloffInternal Medicine, Central Michigan University College of Medicine East Campus, Saginaw, Michigan, USA.
Farah WaniFamily Medicine, Samaritan Medical Center, Watertown, New York, USA.
Zain El-AmirInternal Medicine, Central Michigan University College of Medicine East Campus, Saginaw, Michigan, USA.
Jagmeet SinghMedicine, Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine, Scranton, Pennsylvania, USA.
Michael AljadahInternal Medicine, Central Michigan University College of Medicine East Campus, Saginaw, Michigan, USA.
Raja Chandra ChakinalaMedicine, Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine, Scranton, Pennsylvania, USA.
Ashok Kumar KanugulaInternal Medicine, Hurley Medical Center, Flint, Michigan, USA.
Shantanu SolankiMedicine, Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine, Scranton, Pennsylvania, USA.
Savneek ChughNephrology, Westchester Medical Center, Valhalla, New York, USA.ORCID 0000-0002-0085-8272

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

A narrative review was conducted to examine the current state of the utilisation of telemedicine amid the current COVID-19 pandemic and to evaluate the benefits of continuing telemedicine usage in the future. A literature review was performed for articles related to telemedicine. Databases including PubMed, Google Scholar, Cochrane Library and Ovid MEDLINE were searched. Three reviewers independently performed article selection based on relevance to our topic. We included all articles between 1990 and 2020 related to telemedicine using the following keywords: 'telemedicine', 'telehealth', 'policy', 'COVID-19', 'regulation', 'rural', 'physical examination', 'future'. A total of 60 articles were identified, and through careful selection we narrowed the final number of articles to 42 based on relevance to our topic. Telemedicine has been rapidly evolving over the past several decades. Issues with regulation and reimbursement have prevented its full immersion into the healthcare system. During the current pandemic, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid services have expanded access to telemedicine services. The advantages of telemedicine moving forward include its cost-effectiveness, ability to extend access to specialty services and its potential to help mitigate the looming physician shortage. Disadvantages include lack of available technological resources in certain parts of the country, issues with security of patient data, and challenges in performing the traditional patient examination. It is critically important that changes are made to fully immerse telemedicine services into the healthcare landscape in order to be prepared for future pandemics as well as to reap the benefits of this service in the future.

Indexed as

TelemedicineBetacoronavirusCoronavirus InfectionsCost-Benefit AnalysisCOVID-19ForecastingHealth Services AccessibilityHumansPandemicsPhysiciansPneumonia, ViralSARS-CoV-2United Statesfamily medicinegeneral practicehealth care costsrural health

Identifiers

PMID32816942
PMCPMC7437610

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY-NC
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

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.