Abstract
Introduction: The use of telemedicine services has increased worldwide during recent years as a result of the national strategies for digitalization of health care and the COVID-19 pandemic. However, health care professionals often express uncertainty regarding the evidence and the effectiveness of telemedicine interventions and how to find information about the patient experience. The TELEMED database (https://telemedicine.cimt.dk/) was introduced by the Centre for Innovative Medical Technology (CIMT) at Odense University Hospital to ensure that hospital managers, healthcare professionals and other stakeholders gain access to information about scientific studies of telemedicine interventions, their effectiveness and the patient perception.
Methods: The database constitutes a structured literature search in PubMed for RCT or controlled trials on the effect of telemedicine for somatic diseases treated at hospitals. The search was conducted by staff members in the HTA-unit at CIMT. First, identified studies were sorted by screening titles and abstracts and subsequently by reading full-text versions. The data extracted from the studies included setting, intervention, patient group, type of telemedicine, clinical effect, patient perception and, implementation challenges. Finally, the value of each study was assessed with respect to effectiveness.
Results: 510 articles were included for data extraction and assessment. The database provides results from 22 different specialties and can be searched using the criteria: Medical specialty, country, technology, clinical effect, patient experience and economic effect. The database serves as a platform for the dialogue with clinical departments who wish to implement telemedicine services and has a large potential for supporting the digital transformation during Covid-19 as evidence-based information on patient groups, relevant technologies and their effect is easily accessible. More than 95% of the studies in the database show either statistically significant improvements in the clinical outcome or no statistically significant difference between the telemedicine and the control group.
Conclusions: The TELEMED database provides an easily accessible overview of existing evidence-based telemedicine services. The database is freely available and is expected to be continuously improved and broadened over time.