Telehealth and Telemedicine in response to selected critical coronavirus: A systematic review

Abstract

Background & Objectives: Due to the outbreak of COVID-19, applying telehealth and telemedicine to prevent the spread of disease is inevitable. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the application of telehealth and telemedicine in the human coronavirus epidemic. Materials and Methods: The systematic search was conducted in Medline (through PubMed), Scopus, and ISI Web of Science to identify relevant studies published until June 10, 2020. Inclusion criteria included studies in which telemedicine and telehealth were utilized as healthcare services in COVID-19, SARS, or MERS epidemics. This review was performed according to PRISMA guidelines. Results: A total of 598 articles were identified after removing duplicates. After the systematic screening, 18 studies were met our criteria. The analysis showed that only one study was related to SARS, and the rest were on COVID-19 disease. Teleconsultation and televisit had a high percentage (55.6%) among other types of telemedicine services. The most mentioned obstacles were access to suitable technologies and lack of assessment or follow-up to achieve outcomes. Conclusion: The results showed that telehealth and telemedicine could have advantages such as preventing the spread of COVID-19, reducing the healthcare burden, and maintaining appropriate patient care. In addition to these benefits, several limitations and obstacles, including organizational, technological, and patient-related barriers, may be encountered, so it is better to consider the necessary arrangements before implementing telemedicine.