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Telehealth

Guest Editors:
Bassey Ebenso: University of Leeds, UK
Hao Xue: Stanford University, USA

Submission Status: closed 
 

TelehealthTelehealth is an exciting area of research that, to a great extent, is transforming healthcare and contributing to achieving universal health coverage by improving access (for patients) to quality and cost-effective health services wherever they may be. In support of the rapid progress being made in the telehealth research field, the new launch journal BMC Digital Health, and BMC Health Services Research, jointly ran a collection on Telehealth.

BMC Digital Health considered submissions covering: 

  • Technological developments for providing telehealth
  • Clinical trials of new digital health technologies

BMC Health Services Research considered submissions covering: 

  • Telehealth user perspectives
  • Real-world application and implementation of telehealth technologies in health services

Meet the Guest Editors

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Dr. Bassey Ebenso: University of Leeds, UK

Bassey EbensoA medical doctor and interdisciplinary researcher, Bassey has over 30 years of experience in global health focusing on health policy and systems strengthening in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). He spent his early scientific career in management positions in disease control programs in West Africa, including working as a country director for an international organization. He later joined the University of Leeds, focussing on addressing global health challenges and making healthcare fairer through developing collaborative health services research programs with partners from African and Asian countries. A stream of Bassey’s work involves understanding how implementing digital health strategies can strengthen health systems in LMICs to expand access to healthcare services and improve health outcomes.

Dr. Hao Xue: Stanford University, USA

Hao XueHao Xue is a Postdoctoral Research Scholar for the Stanford Center on China's Economy and Institutions (SCCEI) at Stanford University. He focuses on digital health and primary care quality in developing countries. As a health economist, he led randomized experiments and large-scale population-based surveys to design and evaluate innovative approaches to quality healthcare through digital technologies.

About the collection

TelehealthTelehealth is an exciting area of research that, to a great extent, is transforming healthcare and contributing to achieving universal health coverage by improving access (for patients) to quality and cost-effective health services wherever they may be. Telehealth is the provision of healthcare remotely by means of telecommunications technologies. It is a broad discipline with multiple stakeholders, including clinicians and researchers with expertise in diverse areas, such as healthcare, public health, data technologies, health informatics, and biomedical engineering. 

The terms telemedicine and telehealth are often used interchangeably. Telemedicine refers to the practice of medicine (i.e. diagnosis and treatment of patients) using technology to deliver care to a patient at a distant site. For the purpose of this collection, telehealth is an umbrella term for all components and activities of healthcare and the healthcare system that are conducted through electronic and telecommunications technologies. Examples of telehealth activities and applications that go beyond remote clinical care include healthcare education, health information services, self-care, wearable devices that record and transmit vital signs, and provider-to-provider remote communication.

Technologies currently being deployed for telehealth include mHealth (or mobile health), video and audio technologies, digital photography, remote patient monitoring (RPM), store-and-forward technologies, and streaming media.

The COVID-19 pandemic has undoubtedly made telehealth developments even more important, and the delivery of healthcare via telehealth-based services has increased rapidly as a way of delivering care services while minimizing the risk of COVID-19 transmission.

In support of the rapid progress being made in the telehealth research field, the new launch journal BMC Digital Health, and BMC Health Services Research, will jointly run a collection on the topic of Telehealth. Both journals will consider Research Articles, including systematic reviews and meta-analyses. 

BMC Digital Health will consider submissions covering: 

  • Technological developments for providing telehealth
  • Clinical trials of new digital health technologies

BMC Health Services Research will consider submissions covering: 

  • Telehealth user perspectives
  • Real-world application and implementation of telehealth technologies in health services

  1. Adequate health care in correctional facilities is often limited by staff shortage, which entails time-consuming consultations with physicians outside of these facilities. Video consultations (VC) have been im...

    Authors: Miriam Giovanna Colombo, Stefanie Joos and Roland Koch
    Citation: BMC Health Services Research 2023 23:578
    Content type: Research Published on:

  2. The Austria-Slovenian project REHA2030, with a broad spectrum of expertise, was focused on making the process of telerehabilitation (TR) possible as valuable user-centred post-clinical rehabilitation of stroke...

    Authors: Sascha H. Fink, Jitka Bonková Sýkorová, Lukas Wohofsky and Daniela Krainer
    Citation: BMC Digital Health 2023 1:19
    Content type: Research Published on:

  3. The availability of low-cost computing and digital telecommunication in the 1980s made telehealth practicable. Telehealth has the capacity to improve healthcare access and outcomes for patients while reducing ...

    Authors: Jonathan Kissi, Caleb Annobil, Nathan Kumasenu Mensah, Joseph Owusu-Marfo, Ernest Osei and Zenobia Wooduwa Asmah
    Citation: BMC Health Services Research 2023 23:567
    Content type: Research Published on:

  4. During the COVID-19 pandemic, health care had to find new ways to care for patients while reducing infection transmission. The role of telemedicine role has grown exponentially.

    Authors: Morag Tolvi, Lotta-Maria Oksanen, Lasse Lehtonen, Ahmed Geneid, Pia Männikkö, Hellevi Ruokonen, Anna Majander, Susan Arminen and Leena-Maija Aaltonen
    Citation: BMC Health Services Research 2023 23:483
    Content type: Research Published on:

  5. Developing and implementing home telehealth (HTH) services for patients with chronic conditions is a challenge. HTH services provide continuous and integrated care to patients, but very often pilot projects fa...

    Authors: Carla Sacchi, Karolina Andersson, Marta Roczniewska, Jamie Linnéa Luckhaus, Moa Malmqvist, Lars Peter Rodmalm, Karin Lodin, Rebecca Mosson, Petra Danapfel, Carolina Wannheden and Pamela Mazzocato
    Citation: BMC Health Services Research 2023 23:463
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  6. Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) affects health care services. Our aim was to assess health care disruptions, treatment interruptions, and telemedicine reception regarding autoimmune rheumatic diseases (ARD...

    Authors: Faisal Parlindungan, Sumariyono Sumariyono, Rudy Hidayat, Suryo Anggoro Kusumo Wibowo, Anna Ariane, Johanda Damanik, Abirianty Priandani Araminta and Khadijah Cahya Yunita
    Citation: BMC Health Services Research 2023 23:451
    Content type: Research Published on:

  7. Telehealth rapidly expanded since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aims to understand how telehealth can substitute in-person services by 1) estimating the changes in non-COVID emergency depar...

    Authors: Ying (Jessica) Cao, Dandi Chen and Maureen Smith
    Citation: BMC Health Services Research 2023 23:426
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  8. The COVID-19 pandemic increased the use of telehealth consultations by telephone and video around the world. While telehealth can improve access to primary health care, there are significant gaps in our unders...

    Authors: Supriya Mathew, Michelle S. Fitts, Zania Liddle, Lisa Bourke, Narelle Campbell, Lorna Murakami-Gold, Deborah J Russell, John S. Humphreys, Edward Mullholand, Yuejen Zhao, Michael P. Jones, John Boffa, Mark Ramjan, Annie Tangey, Rosalie Schultz and John Wakerman
    Citation: BMC Health Services Research 2023 23:341
    Content type: Research Published on:

  9. The coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic forced healthcare workers to use alternative consultation approaches. In general practice, the use of video consultations (VCs) increased manyfold as countries were locked...

    Authors: Magnus Repstad Wanderås, Eirik Abildsnes, Elin Thygesen and Santiago Gil Martinez
    Citation: BMC Health Services Research 2023 23:316
    Content type: Research Published on:

  10. Noncommunicable diseases such as diabetes mellitus (DM) have gained attention worldwide. Latin America experienced a rise in rates of DM. During the COVID-19 pandemic, a telemedicine program was implemented in...

    Authors: Luz Angela Casas, Juliana Alarcón, Alejandra Urbano, Evelyn E. Peña-Zárate, Saveria Sangiovanni, Laura Libreros-Peña and María Fernanda Escobar
    Citation: BMC Health Services Research 2023 23:314
    Content type: Research Published on:

  11. Virtual care has become an increasingly useful tool for the virtual delivery of care across the globe. With the unexpected emergence of COVID-19 and ongoing public health restrictions, it has become evident th...

    Authors: Kayla M. Fitzpatrick, Meagan Ody, Danika Goveas, Stephanie Montesanti, Paige Campbell, Kathryn MacDonald, Lynden Crowshoe, Sandra Campbell and Pamela Roach
    Citation: BMC Health Services Research 2023 23:303
    Content type: Research Published on:

  12. The use of telemedicine increased dramatically in nursing homes (NHs) during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, little is known about the actual process of conducting a telemedicine encounter in NHs. The objectiv...

    Authors: James H Ford II, Sally A Jolles, Dee Heller and Christopher Crnich
    Citation: BMC Health Services Research 2023 23:301
    Content type: Research Published on:

  13. In July 2020, Mayo Clinic launched Advanced Care at Home (ACH), a high-acuity virtual hybrid hospital-at-home model (HaH) of care at Mayo Clinic Florida and Northwest Wisconsin, an urban destination medical ce...

    Authors: Margaret R. Paulson, Ricardo A. Torres-Guzman, Francisco R. Avila, Karla C. Maita, John P. Garcia, Antonio J. Forte, Gautam V. Matcha, Ricardo J. Pagan and Michael J. Maniaci
    Citation: BMC Health Services Research 2023 23:287
    Content type: Research Published on:

  14. At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, a local consortium in Uganda set up a telehealth approach that aimed to educate 3,500 Community Health Workers (CHW) in rural areas about COVID-19, help them identify, re...

    Authors: Maarten Olivier Kok, Tosca Terra, Raymond Tweheyo, Marinka van der Hoeven, Maiza Campos Ponce, Marceline Tutu van Furth and Elizeus Rutebemberwa
    Citation: BMC Health Services Research 2023 23:284
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  15. The capacity to deliver essential health services has been negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly due to lockdown restrictions. Telemedicine provides a safe, efficient, and effective altern...

    Authors: Alicia Victoria G. Noceda, Lianne Margot M. Acierto, Morvenn Chaimek C. Bertiz, David Emmanuel H. Dionisio, Chelsea Beatrice L. Laurito, Girrard Alphonse T. Sanchez and Arianna Maever Loreche
    Citation: BMC Health Services Research 2023 23:277
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  16. Contingency measures due to the COVID-19 pandemic limited access to routine prenatal care for pregnant women, increasing the risk of pregnancy complications due to poor prenatal follow-up, especially in those ...

    Authors: María Fernanda Escobar, Juan Carlos Gallego, María Paula Echavarria, Paula Fernandez, Leandro Posada, Shirley Salazar, Isabella Gutierrez and Juliana Alarcon
    Citation: BMC Health Services Research 2023 23:259
    Content type: Research Published on:

  17. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, teleconsultations (TCs) have become common practice for many chronic conditions, including osteoporosis. While satisfaction with TCs among patients increases in times of emergency...

    Authors: Benedetta Pongiglione, Flaminia Carrone, Alessandra Angelucci, Gherardo Mazziotti and Amelia Compagni
    Citation: BMC Health Services Research 2023 23:230
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  18. Physical activity and exercise play a key role in managing Parkinson disease. This study aimed to: 1) determine if physiotherapy supported by telehealth helped people with Parkinson disease (PwP) to adhere to ...

    Authors: Allyson Flynn, Elisabeth Preston, Sarah Dennis, Colleen G. Canning and Natalie E. Allen
    Citation: BMC Health Services Research 2023 23:224
    Content type: Research Published on:

  19. Telehealth usage has been promoted in all settings but has been identified as a panacea to issues of access and equity in the rural context. However, uptake and widespread integration of telehealth across all ...

    Authors: David Nelson, Maxime Inghels, Amanda Kenny, Steve Skinner, Tracy McCranor, Stephen Wyatt, Jaspreet Phull, Agnes Nanyonjo, Ojali Yusuff and Mark Gussy
    Citation: BMC Health Services Research 2023 23:200
    Content type: Research Published on:

  20. The availability and use of telehealth to support health care access from a distance has expanded in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Telehealth services have supported regional and remote health care access...

    Authors: L. T. Thomas, C. M. Y. Lee, K. McClelland, G. Nunis, S. Robinson and R. Norman
    Citation: BMC Health Services Research 2023 23:182
    Content type: Research Published on:

  21. This study aimed to explore the perception of doctors regarding telemedicine consultations and the level of patient satisfaction with the services received through teleconsultations.

    Authors: Nainsi Gupta, Manoj Kumar Gupta, Nitin Kumar Joshi, Neha Mantri, G. Sridevi, Mamta Patel, Akhil Dhanesh Goel, Kuldeep Singh, M. K. Garg and Pankaj Bhardwaj
    Citation: BMC Health Services Research 2023 23:161
    Content type: Research Published on:

  22. The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has resulted in an increase in telemedicine utilization for routine HIV care. However, there is limited information on perceptions of and experiences with telemedicine from United State...

    Authors: Daisy Walker, Corrina Moucheraud, Derrick Butler, Jerome de Vente, Kevin Tangonan, Steven Shoptaw, Judith S. Currier, Jay Gladstein and Risa Hoffman
    Citation: BMC Health Services Research 2023 23:156
    Content type: Research Published on:

  23. As providers look to scale high-acuity care in the patient home setting, hospital-at-home is becoming more prevalent. The traditional model of hospital-at-home usually relies on care delivery by in-home provid...

    Authors: Margaret R. Paulson, Eliza P. Shulman, Ajani N. Dunn, Jacey R. Fazio, Elizabeth B. Habermann, Gautam V. Matcha, Rozalina G. McCoy, Ricardo J. Pagan and Michael J. Maniaci
    Citation: BMC Health Services Research 2023 23:139
    Content type: Research Published on:

  24. Digitalization of health care has opened up for new ways to involve and engage patients. With this, increased attention has been put on digital patient portals. There exists some research on patient portals fo...

    Authors: Martine Stecher Nielsen, Aslak Steinsbekk and Torunn Hatlen Nøst
    Citation: BMC Health Services Research 2023 23:132
    Content type: Research Published on:

  25. Direct-to-consumer telemedicine (TM), with patients having access to a physician via video or text chat, has gradually been introduced into Swedish primary care during the last two decades. Earlier studies hav...

    Authors: Carl Rockler Meurling, Elisabet Adell, Moa Wolff, Susanna Calling, Veronica Milos Nymberg and Beata Borgström Bolmsjö
    Citation: BMC Health Services Research 2023 23:129
    Content type: Research Published on:

  26. The ATICA study was a Hybrid I type randomized effectiveness-implementation trial that demonstrated effectiveness of a multicomponent mHealth intervention (Up to four SMS messages sent to HPV-positive women, a...

    Authors: Cecilia Straw, Victoria Sanchez-Antelo, Racquel Kohler, Melisa Paolino, Kasisomayajula Viswanath and Silvina Arrossi
    Citation: BMC Health Services Research 2023 23:47
    Content type: Research Published on:

  27. One of the most pressing issues in our society is the provision of proper care and treatment for the growing global health challenge of ageing. Assistive Technology and Telecare (ATT) is a key component in fac...

    Authors: Lydia D. Boyle, Bettina S. Husebo and Maarja Vislapuu
    Citation: BMC Health Services Research 2022 22:1573
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  28. To explore health care professionals’ (HCPs) perspectives, experiences and preferences towards digital technology use in routine palliative care delivery.

    Authors: Susann May, Dunja Bruch, Anne Gehlhaar, Felizitas Linderkamp, Kerstin Stahlhut, Martin Heinze, Matthew Allsop and Felix Muehlensiepen
    Citation: BMC Health Services Research 2022 22:1516
    Content type: Research Published on:

  29. Effective delivery of health services requires adequate quality in healthcare facilities and easy accessibility to health services physically or virtually. The purpose of this study was to reveal how the quali...

    Authors: Khanh Hung Le, Thi Xuan Phuong La and Markku Tykkyläinen
    Citation: BMC Health Services Research 2022 22:1374
    Content type: Research Published on:

  31. Telehealth is an effective option to fight the outbreak of COVID-19. This review aims to systematically characterize the utilization and applications of telehealth during the COVID-19 pandemic focusing mainly ...

    Authors: Stefania De Simone, Massimo Franco, Giuseppe Servillo and Maria Vargas
    Citation: BMC Health Services Research 2022 22:833
    Content type: Research Published on:

  32. The COVID-19 pandemic triggered an unprecedented demand for digital health technology solutions, such as remote monitoring. Previous research has focused on patients with chronic diseases, and their experience...

    Authors: Ann-Chatrin Linqvist Leonardsen, Ann Karin Helgesen, Andreas Stensvold, Jannik Magnussen and Vigdis A. Grøndahl
    Citation: BMC Health Services Research 2022 22:453
    Content type: Research Published on:

  33. Process evaluations are useful in clarifying results obtained from randomised controlled trials (RCTs). Traditionally, the degree of intervention usage in process evaluations is monitored by measuring dose or ...

    Authors: Emmelie Barenfeld, Joanne M. Fuller, Sara Wallström, Andreas Fors, Lilas Ali and Inger Ekman
    Citation: BMC Health Services Research 2022 22:442
    Content type: Research Published on:

  34. Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the first cause of death globally, with huge costs worldwide. Most cases of CVD could be prevented by addressing behavioural risk factors. Among these factors, there is physical...

    Authors: Gabriele Palozzi and Gianluca Antonucci
    Citation: BMC Health Services Research 2022 22:277
    Content type: Research Published on:

  35. Sickle cell disease (SCD) is associated with a wide range of complications. However, a multitude of barriers prevent SCD patients from receiving adequate healthcare, including difficulties with transportation ...

    Authors: Seethal A. Jacob, Roua Daas, Anna Feliciano, Julia E. LaMotte and Aaron E. Carroll
    Citation: BMC Health Services Research 2022 22:239
    Content type: Research Published on:

Submission Guidelines

This collection welcomes submissions of Research articles, including systematic reviews, quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-methods research, on the topic of telehealth. Unsolicited narrative reviews will not be considered. Study Protocols will be considered at the discretion of the Journals' Editors. 

Articles will undergo the BMC Series' standard peer-review process overseen by our Guest Editors, Bassey Ebenso (University of Leeds, UK) and Hao Xue (Stanford University, USA). Articles will be added to the Collection as they are published.

Before submitting your manuscript, please ensure you have carefully read the submission guidelines for the journal you are submitting to (BMC Digital Health or BMC Health Services Research). You should only make one submission to the most appropriate journal for your article's focus. Please ensure you highlight in your cover letter that you are submitting to a collection. 

  • To submit to BMC Digital Health, please click here and select the collection in the submission form. 
  • To submit to BMC Health Services Research, please click here and select the collection in the submission form.

Please visit this page to find out more about our article-processing charges. Members of Health Systems Global can claim a 20% discount on our article-processing charges, more information can be found here.