Post pandemic analysis on comprehensive utilization of telehealth and telemedicine

Abstract

The existing global health crisis characterized by limited resources, including health personnel, has prompted the adoption of telemedicine and telehealth, especially in the post-pandemic era. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the adoption of these technologies, and as the world navigates beyond the crisis, it is essential to assess the extent of utilization of telehealth and telemedicine. This review study aims to assess the extent to which teleservices have been implemented worldwide across different continents. Peer-reviewed telehealth and telemedicine articles were reviewed across Web of Science, Scopus, Cochrane Library and Pubmed/Medline databases. The exclusion criteria comprised all articles published before 1 December 2019, any other databases, duplicates, and grey literature. The inclusion criteria for this study encompassed articles published on or after December 1, 2019. This timeframe allowed us to focus on the pandemic and post-pandemic era. A total of 381 publications were identified for inclusion, which were screened based on reviewing the titles, abstracts and full-text content down to 102 relevant articles. Utilization trends were identified amongst the different countries across the continents, and these were classified into advanced, developed, developing and emerging adoption stages. The respective characteristics utilized in differentiating these adoption stages were identified, encompassing the inclusivity of teleservices in administration, disease diagnosis, treatment, patient follow-ups, pharmacy services and electronic health records transversely. According to this review, of the countries surveyed (n = 77), (n = 27) 13.8 % are at an advanced adoption stage, (n = 20) 10.3 % are at a developed level, (n = 24) 12.3 % are at the developed stage, and (n = 6) 3 % are at the emerging stage, as percentages of all the countries in the world (N = 195). In conclusion, this study demonstrated the extent to which various nations have adopted telehealth and telemedicine from the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic to 2023.