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Patient reported satisfaction levels with the use of telemedicine for general surgery- a systematic review of randomized control trials

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journal contribution
posted on 2023-03-01, 11:58 authored by Eoghan Blount, Matthew G. Davey, William P. Joyce

Background: As healthcare continues to evolve in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic, surgeons are presented with the opportunity to integrate telemedicine into healthcare in tandem with in-person consultations. We aimed to perform a systematic review of randomized controlled trials to assess patient satisfaction with telemedicine interventions in general surgery.

Methods: A systematic review was performed in accordance to the PRISMA guidelines. Randomized control trials (RCTs) were included. The risk of bias 2.0 assessment was used to determine potential bias.

Results: In total, 11 prospective, randomized trials involving 1,598 patients (mean age: 49.1 years) were included. Overall 45.5% (5/11) of the trials compared videoconferencing or telephone follow up to traditional in person follow up. Three studies used smart technologies which include activity tracking devices in combination with a website and mobile application (27.3%). The other 3 interventions involved accelerated discharge on post operative day (POD) 1 with tele videoconferencing on POD 2, Post-operative daily text messages with education videos and video calling capability, and supportive text messages post-operatively. Telemedicine was shown to provide similar levels of patient satisfaction compared to controls in all 11 included RCTs.

Conclusion: Patient reported satisfaction with the use of telemedicine is similar to standard of care models in general surgery. With several shortcomings confounding the results in support of telemedicine, further experimentation with telemedicine interventions will likely improve patient reported satisfaction with using telemedicine for peroperative surgical care.

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The original article is available at https://www.sciencedirect.com/

Published Citation

Blount E, Davey MG, Joyce WP. Patient reported satisfaction levels with the use of telemedicine for general surgery- a systematic review of randomized control trials. Surg Pract Sci. 2023;12:100152.

Publication Date

21 December 2022

PubMed ID

36570642

Department/Unit

  • Surgery

Publisher

Elsevier B.V.

Version

  • Published Version (Version of Record)