Use of Telehealth During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Scoping Review

Abstract

Background With over 37.8 million cases and over 1 million deaths worldwide, the COVID-19 pandemic has created a societal and economic upheaval of unparalleled magnitude. A positive transformation has been brought about by innovative solutions in the health care sector that aim to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on human health. For instance, the use of telehealth has been on the rise amidst this public health emergency. Objective Given the unprecedented scale of the pandemic with no definitive endpoint, we aimed to scope the existing telehealth-related literature during a defined period of the ongoing pandemic (ie, January to June 2020). Methods Our scoping review was guided by the Joanna Briggs Institute Reviewer Manual. We systematically searched PubMed and Embase databases with specific eligibility criteria. Data extracted from the shortlisted articles included first author and affiliation, journal title, publication type, terminologies used to describe telehealth and their accompanying definitions, health discipline or medical specialties and subspecialties wherein telehealth had been applied, the purpose of telehealth use, and the authors’ overall sentiment on telehealth use. We collated the available information and used descriptive statistics to analyze the synthesized data. Results In all, 543 articles published across 331 different journals were included in this scoping review. The Journal of Medical Internet Research and its sister journals featured the highest number of articles (25/543, 4.6%). Nearly all (533/543, 98.2%) articles were in English. The majority of the articles were opinions, commentaries, and perspectives (333/543, 61.3%). Most authors of the articles reviewed were from high-income countries (470/543, 86.6%), especially from the United States of America (237/543, 43.6%). In all, 39 different definitions were used to describe terms equivalent to telehealth. A small percentage (42/543, 7.7%) of the articles focused on the provision of COVID-19–related care. Moreover, 49.7% (270/543) of the articles primarily focused on the provision of multiple components of clinical care, and 23% (125/543) of the articles focused on various specialties and subspecialties of internal medicine. For a vast majority (461/543, 84.9%) of the articles, the authors expressed a celebratory sentiment about the use of telehealth. Conclusions This review identified considerable emerging literature on telehealth during the first six months of the COVID-19 pandemic, albeit mostly from high-income countries. There is compelling evidence to suggest that telehealth may have a significant effect on advancing health care in the future. However, the feasibility and application of telehealth in resource-limited settings and low- and middle-income countries must be established to avail its potential and transform health care for the world’s population. Given the rapidity with which telehealth is advancing, a global consensus on definitions, boundaries, protocols, monitoring, evaluation, and data privacy is urgently needed.

Telehealth Use in Geriatrics Care during the COVID-19 Pandemic—A Scoping Review and Evidence Synthesis

“…It is noteworthy that a majority of the articles in this review were written in the context of high-income countries, notably the United States of America (USA), and were published predominantly in geriatrics-related journals published in those countries. This is similar to other studies, which have found that the vast majority of published articles on telehealth were from studies carried out in high-income countries, and a vast majority of them were from the USA [ 9 ]. In high-income countries, access to and use of telehealth for older people has improved during the pandemic.…”

“…With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, a rapid scale up of telehealth services was noted globally as countries began to relax legal restrictions regarding the use of telehealth for the provision of health care services. While insurance companies in some countries had included limited telehealth services in their coverage pre-COVID-19, the scale and scope of coverage for telehealth have rapidly increased during the pandemic [ 8 , 9 ]. There is now a growing optimism on the global use of telehealth services in several specialties, and the field of geriatrics is no exception.…”

Reduced No-Show Rates and Sustained Patient Satisfaction of Telehealth During the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…Nonetheless, our research clearly demonstrates that telehealth appointments resulted in positive overall patient satisfaction metrics compared with other studies, which have consistently shown a strong association between telehealth utilization and increased patient satisfaction both pre-and intra-pandemic. 1,5,8,9,12…”

“…The most recent data available demonstrate that telehealth utilization has effectively assuaged health care delivery challenges amid the current pandemic. 3,4,9 A comprehensive review of COVID-related telehealth literature was recently conducted by Doraiswamy et al, which spanned the first 6 months of the pandemic. 9 In 84.9% of the 543 articles identified, the authors indicated a positive sentiment about the use of telehealth.…”

“…3,4,9 A comprehensive review of COVID-related telehealth literature was recently conducted by Doraiswamy et al, which spanned the first 6 months of the pandemic. 9 In 84.9% of the 543 articles identified, the authors indicated a positive sentiment about the use of telehealth. However, these articles primarily represented opinions, perspectives, and commentaries, as opposed to quantitative or even qualitative research.…”