Evidence map›Paper›PMID 33687321›Full record

Trial reportJournal of clinical sleep medicine : JCSM : official publication of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine2021

Interrater reliability between in-person and telemedicine evaluations in obstructive sleep apnea.

Michael E Yurcheshen, Wilfred Pigeon, Carolina Z Marcus, Jonathan A Marcus, Susan Messing, Kevin Nguyen, Jennifer Marsella

Open access · bronzeAbstract readRandomized Controlled Trial
In one paragraph

Trial report in Journal of clinical sleep medicine : JCSM : official publication of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
5citing papers in PubMed
1.4field-weighted citation impact, top 19% of its field
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

5 citing papers in PubMed, 16 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Article
  2. Effectiveness of mailed versus in-person PAP initiation in the Veterans Affairs' TeleSleep program.Journal of clinical sleep medicine : JCSM : official publication of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine · 2025
    Article
  3. Article
  4. Article
  5. Exploring telemedicine evaluation reliability: ahead of its time and long overdue.Journal of clinical sleep medicine : JCSM : official publication of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine · 2021
    Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

7 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.

Michael E YurcheshenUniversity of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, Rochester, New York.
Wilfred PigeonUniversity of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, Rochester, New York.
Carolina Z MarcusUniversity of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, Rochester, New York.
Jonathan A MarcusUniversity of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, Rochester, New York.
Susan MessingUniversity of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, Rochester, New York.
Kevin NguyenSaddleback Medical Center, Laguna Hills, California.
Jennifer MarsellaUniversity of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, Rochester, New York.
University of Rochester · USSaddleback Memorial Medical Center · US

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

STUDY

objectivesWe examined how telemedicine evaluation compares to face-to-face evaluation in identifying risk for sleep-disordered breathing.

methodsThis was a randomized interrater reliability study of 90 participants referred to a university sleep center. Participants were evaluated by a clinician investigator seeing the patient in-person, then randomized to a second clinician investigator who performed a patient evaluation online via audio-video conferencing. The primary comparator was pretest probability for obstructive sleep apnea.

resultsThe primary outcome comparing pretest probability for obstructive sleep apnea showed a weighted kappa value of 0.414 (standard error 0.090, P = .002), suggesting moderate agreement between the 2 raters. Kappa values of our secondary outcomes varied widely, but the kappa values were lower for physical exam findings compared to historical elements.

conclusionsEvaluation for pretest probability for obstructive sleep apnea via telemedicine has a moderate interrater correlation with in-person assessment. A low degree of interrater reliability for physical exam elements suggests telemedicine assessment for obstructive sleep apnea could be hampered by a suboptimal physical exam. Employing standardized scales for obstructive sleep apnea when performing telemedicine evaluations may help with risk-stratification and ultimately lead to more tailored clinical management.

Indexed as

Sleep Apnea, ObstructiveSleep Apnea SyndromesTelemedicineHumansReproducibility of ResultsSleepclinical studyinterrater reliabilityobstructive sleep apneasleep-disordered breathingtelehealthtelemedicine

Identifiers

PMID33687321
PMCPMC8314612
OpenAlexW3134951948

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
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.