Twenty years of telemedicine in chronic disease management – an evidence synthesis

Abstract

A literature review was conducted to obtain a high-level view of the value of telemedicine in the management of five common chronic diseases (asthma, COPD, diabetes, heart failure, hypertension). A total of 141 randomised controlled trials (RCTs) was identified, in which 148 telemedicine interventions of various kinds had been tested in a total of 37,695 patients. The value of each intervention was categorised in terms of the outcomes specified by the investigators in that trial, i.e. no attempt was made to extract a common outcome from all studies, as would be required for a conventional meta-analysis. Summarizing the value of these interventions shows, first, that most studies have reported positive effects ( n = 108), and almost none have reported negative effects ( n = 2). This suggests publication bias. Second, there were no significant differences between the chronic diseases, i.e. telemedicine seems equally effective (or ineffective) in the diseases studied. Third, most studies have been relatively short-term (median duration 6 months). It seems unlikely that in a chronic disease, any intervention can have much effect unless applied for a long period. Finally, there have been very few studies of cost-effectiveness. Thus the evidence base for the value of telemedicine in managing chronic diseases is on the whole weak and contradictory.

Cited by papers we hold 6

• Use of Telehealth During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Scoping Review · 2020
  No notice
• Cancer Survivors’ Experience With Telehealth: A Systematic Review and Thematic Synthesis · 2017
  No notice
• Personalized Telehealth in the Future: A Global Research Agenda · 2016
  No notice
• Effects of Home Telemonitoring Interventions on Patients With Chronic Heart Failure: An Overview of Systematic Reviews · 2015
  No notice
• Effectiveness and Cost-Effectiveness of eHealth Interventions in Somatic Diseases: A Systematic Review of Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses · 2014
  No notice
• Internet Use Among Older Adults: Association With Health Needs, Psychological Capital, and Social Capital · 2013
  No notice

Questions about this paper

Reads

A person counts once a day per paper. We keep no cookie and no address: a reader is a hash that changes every day. Any month under five reads shows no number.