Quality analysis of telemedicine studies in sleep apnea: applications of the model of assessment telemedicine as a methodological tool

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Our study aimed to verify the usefulness of the Model for Assessment of Telemedicine (MAST) to select quality studies on the use of telemedicine in patients with sleep apnea syndrome.EVIDENCE ACQUISITION: We carried out a bibliographic search with the Pubmed search engine. We selected all the articles published in the last ten years, written in English or Spanish, that included only an adult patient. The type of study accepted was the clinical trial, meta-analysis, systematic reviews, and observational studies. The user Medical Subject Headings (MesH) were “telemedicine,” “telehealth” and, “sleep apnea syndrome.”EVIDENCE SYNTHESIS: We included a total of 20 studies, 70% of which were conducted in Europe. We identified three studies considered “high quality” and detected a significant association between domains 3 and 5 of the MAST with the higher quality of the manuscript. Non-compliance of several domains of the MAST method is systematic, especially in order of frequency, domains 2 (95% non-compliance), 5 (55%), 4 (50%) and 3 (30%).CONCLUSIONS: The MAST is an easy-to-use tool that allows the design, analysis and selection of the highest quality telemedicine studies. In our opinion, a new domain to assess health professionals’ opinion should be considered that allows detection parameters that may eventually interfere with the acceptance and use of the telemedicine program.