Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2016 Jul 16;24(4):286-292.
doi: 10.5455/aim.2016.24.286-292.

Teleconsultation and Clinical Decision Making: a Systematic Review

Kolsoum Deldar  1 , Kambiz Bahaadinbeigy  2 , Seyed Mahmood Tara  3
Affiliations

Teleconsultation and Clinical Decision Making: a Systematic Review

Kolsoum Deldar et al. Acta Inform Med. .

Abstract

Background: The goal of teleconsultation is to omit geographical and functional distance between two or more geographically separated health care providers. The purpose of present study is to review and analyze physician-physician teleconsultations.

Method: The PubMed electronic database was searched. The primary search was done on January 2015 and was updated on December 2015. A fetch and tag plan was designed by the researchers using an online Zotero library.

Results: 174 full-text articles of 1702 records met inclusion criteria. Teleconsultation for pediatric patients accounts for 14.36 percent of accepted articles. Surgery and general medicine were the most prevalent medical fields in the adults and pediatrics, respectively. Most teleconsultations were inland experiences (no=135), and the USA, Italy and Australia were the three top countries in this group. Non-specialists health care providers/centers were the dominant group who requested teleconsultation (no=130). Real time, store and forward, and hybrid technologies were used in 50, 31, and 16.7 percent of articles, respectively. The teleconsultation were reported to result in change in treatment plan, referral or evacuation rate, change in diagnosis, educational effects, and rapid decision making. Use of structured or semi-structured template had been noticed only in a very few articles.

Conclusion: The present study focused on the recent ten years of published articles on physician-physician teleconsultations. Our findings showed that although there are positive impacts of teleconsultation as improving patient management, still have gaps that need to be repaired.

Keywords: decision making; remote consultation; teleconsultation; telemedicine.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
– Selection process of articles
Figure 2
Figure 2
– Time distribution or total retrieved records and accepted articles per year
Figure 3
Figure 3
– Medical fields in adult and pediatric group
Figure 4
Figure 4
Geographical distribution of Inland TCs
Figure 5
Figure 5
Reported effects of teleconsultation on requesting physician
Figure 6
Figure 6
Reported effects based on specialty level of teleconsultation parties
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Bove AA, Homko CJ, Santamore WP, Kashem M, Kerper M, Elliott DJ. Managing hypertension in urban underserved subjects using telemedicine—a clinical trial. American heart journal. 2013 Apr;165(4):615–21. PubMed PMID: 23537980. Epub2013/03/30. eng. - PubMed
    1. Remote Consultation–MeSH–NCBI [updated 2016/04/18/05: 55: 49] Available from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/mesh?Db=mesh& term=Remote+Consultationfiles/... .
    1. Agarwal S, Day DJ, Sibson L, Barry PJ, Collas D, Metcalf K, et al. Thrombolysis delivery by a regional telestroke network—experience from the U.K. National Health Service. Journal of the American Heart Association. 2014;3(1):e000408. PubMed PMID: 24572251. Pubmed Central PMCID: PMC3959696. Epub2014/02/28. eng. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Engle X, Aird J, Tho L, Bintcliffe F, Monsell F, Gollogly J, et al. Combining continuing education with expert consultation via telemedicine in Cambodia. Tropical doctor. 2014 Apr;44(2):62–8. PubMed PMID: 24322763. Epub2013/12/11. eng. - PubMed
    1. Seeber A, Mitterer M, Gunsilius E, Mazzoleni G, Giovannetti R, Farsad M, et al. Feasibility of a multdisciplinary lung cancer videoconference between a peripheral hospital and a comprehensive cancer centre. Oncology. 2013;84(3):186–90. PubMed PMID: 23328311. Epub2013/01/19. eng. - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources