ArticlePloS one2025
Can telemedicine help integrate the referral-based healthcare system? An economic and operational analysis.
Article in PloS one, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
What it found
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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.
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Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed.
- Assessing Telemedicine Implementation Potential in High-Referral Specialties: A Cross-Sectional Study in Iran.Health science reports · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
purposeTelemedicine can help specialists in providing efficient care to patients from a distance and it has been growing steadily in healthcare. This study aims to provide an operational perspective by investigating the effect of telemedicine on patients' choices, healthcare providers' service decisions, service quality and total social welfare.
methodsWe propose an optimization model that incorporates patients' choices and physicians' actions under two scenarios: full coverage and partial coverage. We analyze the model and conduct numerical experiments to explore the impact of telemedicine in a referral-based healthcare system with heterogeneous patients.
resultsThe findings show that telemedicine can induce greater collaboration between generalists and the specialist, which would result in the specialist spending less time on each patient. Interestingly, we find that after the introduction of telemedicine, the average quality cost decreases under full coverage but increases under partial coverage. Moreover, the introduction of telemedicine could lead to higher social welfare as it improves the accessibility of services to patients, especially in rural areas. Finally, this study also demonstrates that the referral-based healthcare system may benefit more from telemedicine when there is a heavier travel burden for patients or a higher financial incentive for generalists.
conclusionThe introduction of telemedicine mainly contributes to the patients' service accessibility, particularly for patients in remote areas, and can foster closer collaboration between generalists and specialists. However, in hospitals where medical resources are already strained, it may worsen specialist overuse and lead to lower service quality. These findings highlight that telemedicine is not universally beneficial. The policymaker should consider regional coverage conditions and use targeted financial incentives to improve its effectiveness within referral-based healthcare systems.
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Registered trials
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