Evolution Of Telemedicine Research Articles

Sexual Medicine Society of North America (SMSNA)/American Urological Association (AUA) telemedicine and men's health white paper.

The purpose of this white paper is to educate health care professionals about the evolution of telemedicine (TM) and to propose a hybrid model that leverages the strengths of traditional in-person medicine as well as virtual medicine while maximizing the safety and quality of men's sexual health care. A literature search focused on the use of TM in urology and men's health was performed through PubMed/MEDLINE, Embase, and Web of Science (January 1, 2012-April 26, 2022). Keywords included all known permutations of the terminology used to refer to virtual health, care as well as the terminology used to refer to urologic diseases, issues specific to men's health, and men's sexual health concerns. Publications that emerged after the literature search that met this criterion also were incorporated. Opinion pieces, letters to the editor, meeting abstracts, and conference proceedings were excluded. Additional resources were retrieved, such as governmental technical reports, legislative updates and reviews, and blogs. This search strategy yielded 1684 records across databases after removal of duplicates. Abstracts from the retrieved records were reviewed for relevance. Relevant publications were defined as those that reported data on any aspect of TM use specific to urology, men's health, and/or men's sexual health. If relevance was unclear from the abstract, then the full text of the article was retrieved for a more detailed review. In addition, the published evidence-based practice guidelines relevant to care for erectile dysfunction, Peyronie's disease, ejaculatory dysfunction, and hypogonadism were retrieved. The most common reasons for article exclusions were a focus on TM use in disciplines other than urology and the absence of data (ie, opinion pieces). After exclusions, a total of 91 publications remained and constituted the evidence base for this paper.

CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE INFORMATION MANAGEMENT. REQUESTS AND PROPOSALS

The measures adopted during the COVID-19 pandemic to reduce the health crisis led to the implementation of a new service in current medical practice - telemedicine. In the post-pandemic period, telemedicine continued to be practiced around the world. This is the premise from which this article starts. The proposed goal is to carry out a comparative study between the evolution of telemedicine in Romania and the level of development in the European Union. Achieving the goal required, as a first objective, knowledge of the development of telemedicine in Romania, followed by a comparative analysis with the level of development of telemedicine in the European Union. For the first objective, the method of researching the collectives that have the necessary information for the study was used. A survey was carried out, using as methods for data collection, the method of direct survey research and online research by accessing the websites of institutions responsible for the practice of telemedicine. The comparative study was carried out through a parallel between telemedicine services in the European Union and those in Romania. Through the combined analysis of the results of the two investigations, the opportunities for development and the constraints of the telemedicine sector in Romania were identified.

Telemedicine and Teleconsulting in the Era of COVID-19 Pandemic: A Useful Tool from Screening to Intensive Care Monitoring

The COVID-19 global pandemic has had striking effects on clinical practice and medical assistance and the progressive evolution of telemedicine and telehealth systems has allowed healthcare professionals to connect with patients yet respecting the striking need for social distancing. This article aims to review the possible ways to use telehealth and teleconsulting systems to guarantee an adequate level of clinical assistance starting from screening procedures up to support the management of patients admitted to intensive care units area, thus balancing the need to ensure continuity of care and at the same time limiting the possible sources of contagion expansion. Telemedicine may be a useful tool to improve clinical assistance and reduce the financial burden on the health system in a long-term view. Although it cannot completely replace patient-physician interactions, it would be desirable to implement this field and made it accessible to the largest part of the population.

Telemedicine for a Multidisciplinary Assessment of Orofacial Pain in a Patient Affected by Eagle’s Syndrome: A Clinical Case Report

Background: Orofacial pain has a broad range of origins and a multidisciplinary approach occupies a relevant role. Objective: The aim of this study was to review the literature regarding the evolution of telemedicine and orofacial pain related to a case report of a patient affected by Eagle's syndrome. Materials and Methods: Two authors (RJM and SG) independently reviewed the literature up to March 2020. A case report was developed by including the interdisciplinary assessment and initial treatment of orofacial pain in a 38-year-old female patient affected by Eagle’s syndrome. The patient was interviewed by two different specialists (from Rome, Italy and Los Angeles, California) through an online meeting platform in order to evaluate her complex situation, demonstrating the possibilities that telemedicine offered during the COVID-19 pandemic. Conclusion: An interdisciplinary approach can be performed for future follow ups on patients as various advantages were found by the patient and by the clinicians themselves.

The evolution of telemedicine during COVID-19. From theory to practice?

It must be recognized that, in the lockdown period, in addition to the shortcomings of the telemedicine systems, diabetologists also highlighted the lack of knowledge of the telematic tools available on the market potentially usable immediately. For this reason our scientific societies (AMD-SID-SIE) have taken on the burden to collect from the companies that have responded to our request, the information on their remote medicine systems trying to classify them in a neutral but homogeneous way, in a matrix of technological characteristics able to describe the characteristics of each product. KEY WORDS telemedicine; diabetes mellitus; COVID-19.

Telemedicine in the emergency department in the era of COVID-19: front-line experiences from 2 institutions.

During the COVID‐19 pandemic, one of the major changes that has occurred in emergency medicine is the evolution of telemedicine. With relaxation of regulatory and administrative barriers, the use of this already available technology has rapidly expanded. Telemedicine provides opportunity to markedly decrease personal protective equipment (PPE) and reduce healthcare worker exposures. Moreover, with the convenience and availability of access to medical care via telemedicine, a more fundamental change in healthcare delivery in the United States is likely. The implementation of telemedicine in the emergency department (ED) in particular has great potential to prevent the iatrogenic spread of COVID‐19 and protect health care workers. Challenges to widespread adoption of telemedicine include privacy concerns, limitation of physical examination, and concerns of patient experience. In this clinical review, we discuss ED telemedicine applications, logistics, and challenges in the COVID‐19 era as well as recent regulatory and legal changes. In addition, examples of telemedicine use are described from 2 institutions. Examples of future applications of telemedicine within the realm of emergency medicine are also discussed.

COVID-19. An update for orthopedic surgeons.

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected our world in a short period of time, and the orthopedic surgery practice was not an exclusion. Elective care was deferred in most health care facilities and emergency care was continued with strict precautions. With rapid progression of the pandemic, the response of the medical community is also rapidly changing in all aspects of delivering care. This led to a large number of publications with reports, guidelines, measures, ways to react to the crisis, and post-pandemic predictions and speculations. In this review we aimed at summarizing all the relevant information to the orthopedic surgery community. To do this, a comprehensive search was performed with all related terms on two scientific search engines, PubMed and SCOPUS, and the results were filtered by the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) method. The result was 72 articles that were further reduced to 33 articles after full text reading. The resultant information was organized under 5 main headings; the impact of pandemic on the orthopedic practice, COVID-19 and the trauma patient, elective and emergency surgeries during the pandemic, peri-operative management of the patient with COVID-19, Miscellaneous effects of the pandemic such as those on training programs and the evolution of telemedicine. This review represents the most up to date information published in the literature that is a must-know to every orthopedic surgeon.

What Is the Evolution of Telemedicine and e-Health in North Africa? A Systematic Review

What Is the Evolution of Telemedicine and e-Health in North Africa? A Systematic Review

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Introduction: The evolution of telemedicine in the last decade has influenced not only the ICU metrics of mortality and LOS but also the quality of care through implementation of standardized processes which impacts patients outcome in the ICU. Methods: This is a pre/post retrospective study designed to identify the effect of tele-ICU interventions to improved outcomes of patients in a large multicenter medical, surgical and cardiovascular ICU. We compared outcomes of a random sample of patients from the year Jan 2009-Dec 2009 (Pre-implementation) to outcomes in patients from April 2010-September 2010 (Post- implementation) of tele-ICU. The patients were categorized on the basis of predictive modeling algorithms using APACHE® IV (Cerner, Kansan City, MO) scores. They were categorized as: Low predicted risk (with <10% mortality), Medium predicted risk (10-50% mortality), and High predicted risk (with >50% mortality) The primary outcome are ICU and hospital mortality and number of ventilator days in both the arms. The secondary outcome are ICU and hospital LOS and the influence of implementation of processes on optimization of critical care by using VAP bundle adherence, VAP rates, DVT prophylaxis and SUP prophylaxis. Data are compared between the pre- and post-implementation groups using the Pearson Chi-square and Wilcoxon Ranksum tests as appropriate. The pre-implementation period was then compared with 2013 data of patients from Jan 2013 to June 2013 (Group C) to assess for sustainability of the tele-ICU interventions. Results: We had a total of 187 patients in the pre-implementation arm (Group A) and 2001 in the post-implementation arm (Group B) in our different ICUs-Unit A, B and C. Pre-implementation data for 2009 shows unit mortality at 15.5%, unit B at 13.6%, and unit C at 5.4%. Post-implementation shows unit A at 12.4% in Q2 and 11% in Q3, unit B at 12.4% in Q2 and 12.7% in Q3, and unit C at 2.2% for Q2 and 1.8% for Q3. The ICU LOS was 5.16 days in the Group A and 4.33 days in Q2 and 4.88 days in Q3. There was also a decrease in hospital mortality, and improvement in ICU LOS. We also found in 2013 data (Group C patients) after 3 years of tele-ICU interventions showed a significant improvement in the ICU mortality, ICU LOS and ICU quality metrics. Conclusions: These data supported our hypothesis that the mortality rates were reduced significantly post-implementation. Implementation of tele-ICU (even though an expensive model and proposition with initial high investment and involving changes in the basic infrastructure of an ICU) does influence outcomes of patients, improves hospital quality metrics and advancement of society at large.

Evolution of Telemedicine from an Applied Communication Perspective in the United States

Telemedicine, the use of telecommunication technologies to provide health services over some distance, has a history that spans more than five decades. Technological development and deployment have been interrelated with shifting paradigmatic views. This paper proposes that telemedicine has evolved through three generations that began with telemedicine as a communication medium to complement traditional services to a technology of automation and decision tools that expands the scope and range of health services and creates a unique health communication context. This paper provides a literature review and overviews three proposed evolutionary stages for telemedicine to date, namely synchronous versus asynchronous modalities, data transfer and storage, and automating decision making and robotics. Finally, we conclude with a discussion of the barriers for telemedicine and a call for engineers to join with social scientists and medical professionals to set an agenda for future telemedicine development.

Integration of Telemedicine in Graduate Medical Informatics Education

An essential part of health informatics is telemedicine, the use of advanced telecommunications technologies to bridge distance and support health care delivery and education. This report discusses the integration of telemedicine into a medical informatics curriculum and, specifically, a framework for a telemedicine course. Within this framework, the objectives and exit competencies are presented and course sections are described: definitions, introduction to technical aspects of telemedicine, evolution of telemedicine and its impact on health care delivery, success and failure factors, and legal and ethical issues. The emphasis is on literature review tools, practical exposure to products and applications, and problem-based learning. Given the rapid advances in the telecommunication field, keeping the course material up to date becomes a challenge for the instructor who at the same time aims to equip students with the knowledge and tools they will need in their future role as decision makers to detect a need for, design, implement, maintain, or evaluate a telemedicine application.

Evolution of telemedicine in the space program and earth applications.

Remote monitoring of crew, spacecraft, and environmental health has always been an integral part of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA's) operations. Crew safety and mission success face a number of challenges in outerspace, including physiological adaptations to microgravity, radiation exposure, extreme temperatures and vacuum, and psychosocial reactions to space flight. The NASA effort to monitor and maintain crew health, system performance, and environmental integrity in space flight is a sophisticated and coordinated program of telemedicine combining cutting-edge engineering with medical expertise. As missions have increased in complexity, NASA telemedicine capabilities have grown apace, underlying its role in the field. At the same time, the terrestrial validation of telemedicine technologies to bring healthcare to remote locations provides feedback, improvement, and enhancement of the space program. As NASA progresses in its space exploration program, astronauts will join missions lasting months, even years, that take them millions of miles from home. These long-duration missions necessitate further technological breakthroughs in tele-operations and autonomous technology. Earth-based monitoring will no longer be real-time, requiring telemedicine capabilities to advance with future explorers as they travel deeper into space. The International Space Station will serve as a testbed for the telemedicine technologies to enable future missions as well as improve the quality of healthcare delivery on Earth.