The use of telemedicine in COVID-19 pandemic era: a systematic review

Introduction: Telemedicine is a form of healthcare that uses technology to provide various health services. This method has been widely used during the COVID-19 pandemic when physical distancing is called. This systematic review aimed to review various uses of telemedicine on 11 databases using the PRISMA flowchart from January 1^st, 2020, to December 31^st, 2021. Methods: This review has been registered in PROSPERO (https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/display_record. php?RecordID=269809). The search terms are: “COVID-19,” “Coronavirus,” “SARS-CoV-2,” “2019-nCoV,” “Telemedicine,” “Telehealth,” “Teleconsultation,” “Telemonitoring,” “Telemanagement,” “Teleconferencing,” “Video conferencing,” “Video consultation,”“Virtual care,”“Virtual service,”“Virtual treatment,”“Remote treatment,”“Remote service,”“Remote consultation,” “Digital care,” “Digital treatment,” “Mobile health,” and “E-health.” The quality assessment used indexed databases for the SCOPUS, Web of Science (ESCI), and PubMed (PMC and Medline). Results: On initial scrutiny, 2.031.242 articles were obtained; after screening with inclusion and exclusion criteria, 17 articles were included. Only 4 articles reported the use of telemedicine for respiratory-related diseases patients; 3 of these were COVID-19-related cases. Other 13 articles reported the use of telemedicine for admission, anamnesis, diagnosis, treatment, follow-up, and monitoring purposes for non-respiratory-related diseases. Methods applied include voice calls, video conferences, and specific software on computers and smartphones. There were no significant differences between telemedicine and the face-to-face method, although the lack of health providers’ presence has been complained about in the prior method. Conclusion: From this review, telemedicine is a beneficial tool for delivering health services during the COVID-19 pandemic.