11 February 2024: Review Articles
A Systematic Review of Publications on Perceptions and Management of Chronic Medical Conditions Using Telemedicine Remote Consultations by Primary Healthcare Professionals April 2020 to December 2021 During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Arzaq Ahmed 1ABCDEF , Mahdi Mutahar 2ADF* , Arwa A. Daghrery 3EFG , Nassreen H. Albar 3EFG , Ismail Qasem I. Alhadidi 4BG , Ali Mohammed Asiri 5DG* , Nezar Boreak 3BFG , Ahmed Audah S. Alshahrani 6DG , Mansoor Shariff 7CG , Mosa A. Shubayr 8CFG , Mohammed M. Al Moaleem 9EFDOI: 10.12659/MSM.943383
Med Sci Monit 2024; 30:e943383
Background
Review Design
Formulating Research Question
Keys Terms
Inclusion and Exclusion Criteria
Databases Selection and Studies Searching
Quality Assessment
Data Extraction
Data Synthesis
Results of the Selection and Search Criteria
Characteristics of the Included Studies
Heterogenicity of the Studies
Quality Appraisal of the Included Studies
Emerging Themes
Discussion
Conclusions
References
Table 2 Description of included studies.
| Authors, date/country | Population | Sample (n)/age (mean/standard deviation) | Research aim(s) | Methodology, data collection/data analysis |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Helou et al, 2020/Lebanon []52 | Physicians who engaged in telehealth services; public health awareness, continuing medical education, research, administration and teaching | 140 physicians (93 male, 47 female)Ages 25–66+ | Aiming to understand how physicians adapted to the sudden need for telehealth and if their perception of telehealth changed due to their experience during the COVID-19 pandemic | An exploratory sequential mixed-methods study, semi-structured interviews, questionnaire, thematic analysis |
| Rodriguez et al, 2020/Spain []53 | Healthcare professionals with or without experience in video consultation) | 53 professionals | Exploring the views of Spanish healthcare practitioners on the introduction of video consultations | Qualitative, A descriptive observational study, structured interviews (online), thematic analysisA content analysis of the qualitative data was performed |
| Gomez et al, 2020/USA []54 | Primary healthcare physicians | 15 primary care physicians and physicians in training | Primary care practices rapidly adopted telemedicine visits due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but information on physician’s perspective about these visits is lacking | Semi-structured interviewsThematic analysis |
| Srinivasan et al, 2020/USA []55 | Primary care physicians | 123 participants | To seek stakeholder perspectives on video visits’ acceptability and effect 3 weeks after near-total transition to video visits | Semi-structured qualitative interviewsThematic analysis grounded theory approach |
| Hassani et al, 2020/Oman []56 | Primary healthcare physicians | 22 physicians | To explore perceptions of physicians regarding telephone consultations, it’s implementation, challenges and limitations as well as lessons learnt beyond COVID-19 | Qualitative, audio recorded interviews, thematic analysis and interpretive phenomenological analysis |
| Crossman et al, 2020/Israel []57 | Primary care paediatricians | One hundred and sixty-nine paediatricians | To examine the use of telemedicine by Israeli paediatricians in the post-pandemic period before and after the first lockdown process of the pandemic, and to explain how they anticipate telemedicine as a tool for medical practise | Structured questionnaires, Web-based survey, two hypothetical clinical scenarios, Chi-square tests |
| Verhoeven et al, 2020/Belgium []58 | General practitioners | 132 General Practitioners | The effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on primary care’s key roles, implications and perspectives of general practitioners | QualitativeSemi-structured interviewsAn inductive framework analysis approach was used |
| Aksoy et al, 2020/Turkey []59 | Family medicine physicians | 15 physicians | To read about the experiences of research assistants in family medicine during the COVID 19 pandemic and to collect knowledge about enhancement practises that can be conducted in related circumstances | Qualitative study thematic framework method |
| Helou et al, 2020/Lebanon []52 | Remote consultations; phone, internet, multi-media channel, webinars, conference online | Increased use of telemedicine via covid-19. Four main themes: telemedicine protection, medical-legal aspects, telemedicine service remuneration, telemedicine practice management | Policy makers, creators, and researchers in the field of health Is to preserve the stability of telehealth operations beyond the COVID-19 pandemic and to enable telehealth programmes to be broadly embraced and utilised. Further research is needed to explore the lasting effect on the use and understanding of telehealth of the COVID-19 pandemic | |
| Rodriguez et al, 2020/Spain []53 | Video consultations | Identified benefits and challenges of video consultations. Video consultations during covid-19 may provide information on the future of telemedicine to provide healthcare not only to chronic patients, but also to patients with acute diseases. In a greater context, they have been proven to be beneficial, and so need not be prevented until the pandemic is mitigated.Discussed benefits at three levels, healthcare professionals and patients, health systems and compared video consultations to telephone calls | Recommended the introduction of health policy and programmes in favors of this health care modality, encouraging its implementation and maintaining its functionality, fair coverage and quality of healthcare | |
| Gomez et al, 2020/USA []54 | Synchronous | Telemedicine visits provide new options for enhancing the quality of health treatment but have acknowledged improvements in patient experiences. Many of these improvements are positive, but it remains to be seen if others negatively impact provider-patient contact, patient willingness to report, such as lack of physical inspection and loss of physical appearance and touch | Not mentioned | |
| Srinivasan et al, 2020/USA []55 | Video visits | Ease-of-use technologies must expand and facilitate multi-party video conferencing. Providers should, irrespective of geography, be able to care for their patients. With simulated assessment preparation and home-based medical diagnostics, clinicians require decision-making assistance | Continued payment of video visits should be proportionate to the health and well-being of the patients | |
| Hassani et al, 2020/Oman []56 | Telephone consultations | The use of primary healthcare telephone consultation, especially in chronic situations, is encouraging. However, the key elements for high-quality and sustainable TC care in PHC from a physician’s perspective are steps, including recruitment of personnel, strengthening the structural environment and choosing relevant cases for TC. | In order to assess the efficacy of TC post-COVID-19 within the existing local clinical context, further work is required | |
| Crossman et al, 2020/Israel []57 | videoconferencing via Zoom or Facetime, and Tytocare or American Well digital remote devices | The research reveals that after the first COVID-19 lockdown, the use of telemedicine technology by primary care paediatricians grew significantly. The report also showed that paediatricians predicted rate of usage to decrease after the pandemic | If the pandemic persists and grows, the extent of telemedicine usage as well as assumptions about the level of post-pandemic use would be essential to continue tracking | |
| Verhoeven et al, 2020/Belgium []58 | Telephone consultations | Present themes have a significant effect on primary care key competencies | GPs are concerned about the quality of routine care and the impact of anti covid therapy | |
| Aksoy et al, 2020/Turkey []59 | Online sessions for public awareness, continuing medical education, research, administration, and teaching | Study assistants in family medicine have major positions during pandemics. In this time, though, understanding their viewpoints is very necessary in order to have the most accurate management and to satisfy their training needs | Four key topics were revealed in the analysis; feelings encountered during the pandemic, working climate, profits, motivations for preferring family medicine | |