The use of telemedicine in COVID-19 pandemic era: a systematic review

Abstract

Introduction: Telemedicine is a form of healthcare that uses technology to provide various health services. This method has been widely used during the COVID-19 pandemic when physical distancing is called. This systematic review aimed to review various uses of telemedicine on 11 databases using the PRISMA flowchart from January 1st, 2020, to December 31st, 2021. Methods: This review has been registered in PROSPERO (https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/display_record. php?RecordID=269809). The search terms are: “COVID-19,” “Coronavirus,” “SARS-CoV-2,” “2019-nCoV,” “Telemedicine,” “Telehealth,” “Teleconsultation,” “Telemonitoring,” “Telemanagement,” “Teleconferencing,” “Video conferencing,” “Video consultation,”“Virtual care,”“Virtual service,”“Virtual treatment,”“Remote treatment,”“Remote service,”“Remote consultation,” “Digital care,” “Digital treatment,” “Mobile health,” and “E-health.” The quality assessment used indexed databases for the SCOPUS, Web of Science (ESCI), and PubMed (PMC and Medline). Results: On initial scrutiny, 2.031.242 articles were obtained; after screening with inclusion and exclusion criteria, 17 articles were included. Only 4 articles reported the use of telemedicine for respiratory-related diseases patients; 3 of these were COVID-19-related cases. Other 13 articles reported the use of telemedicine for admission, anamnesis, diagnosis, treatment, follow-up, and monitoring purposes for non-respiratory-related diseases. Methods applied include voice calls, video conferences, and specific software on computers and smartphones. There were no significant differences between telemedicine and the face-to-face method, although the lack of health providers’ presence has been complained about in the prior method. Conclusion: From this review, telemedicine is a beneficial tool for delivering health services during the COVID-19 pandemic.