Abstract
BackgroundThe use of information technology in healthcare is fast becoming an alternative and supporting method of providing many forms of services in a healthcare and health management setting. Telephone technology is used readily to deliver services such as disease management, consultations and behaviour coaching. Telemedicine provides a promising alternative and supporting service for face-to-face general practice care. The aim of this review is to utilise a systematic review to collate evidence on the use of telemedicine as a lead in and an alternative to general practice visits.Methods/designA systematic search of MEDLINE, CINAHL, the Cochrane Library and the International Clinical Trials Registry Platform will be performed using the search terms for the intervention (telemedicine) and the comparator (general practice) to search the databases. The systematic review aims to identify randomised control trials; however, if none are identified, an updated search will be conducted to identify lower levels of evidence. Papers will be reviewed and assessed for quality and data extracted using two reviewers; if consensus is required, a third reviewer will be consulted. If applicable, a meta-analysis of relevant outcomes will be conducted. The protocol has been reported according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses protocols (PRISMA-P) guidelines.DiscussionThe intervention and comparator have the potential to provide a vast range of healthcare services to a range of diseases and health conditions. There is likely to be difficulty in identifying relevant clinical outcome measures for the patient population. A range of outcome measures will therefore be collected in the data extraction phase.Systematic review registrationPROSPERO CRD42015025225Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13643-015-0115-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Highlights
The use of information technology in healthcare is fast becoming an alternative and supporting method of providing many forms of services in a healthcare and health management setting
Telemedicine provides a promising alternative to faceto-face general practice (GP) care [1]
The aim of this study is to undertake a systematic review of the evidence on the use of telemedicine as a lead in and an alternative to general practice visits
Summary
The use of information technology in healthcare is fast becoming an alternative and supporting method of providing many forms of services in a healthcare and health management setting. Telemedicine provides a promising alternative and supporting service for face-to-face general practice care. The aim of this review is to utilise a systematic review to collate evidence on the use of telemedicine as a lead in and an alternative to general practice visits. Telemedicine provides a promising alternative to faceto-face general practice (GP) care [1]. This is true for sparsely populated regions where accesses to primary care is difficult and would require travelling long distances [2, 3]. The aim of this study is to undertake a systematic review of the evidence on the use of telemedicine as a lead in and an alternative to general practice visits. The participants, interventions, comparators and outcomes (PICO) for this systematic review will be as follows: Participants: people looking to access general practice services
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