Remote Consultations in General Practice - A Systematic Review.

Abstract

Introduction: Remote consultations in general practice can be very useful form of telemedicine, which is basically a way to exchange medical information to improve the clinical health of patients when the patient and their general practitioner (GP) are not on the same place at the same time. This concept was developed in the 1980s to provide health care to patients who lived in remote areas.

Methods: We were interested in researching what kind of remote consultations are available in general practice and what is the usage of these methods. We used four keywords - remote consultation and general practice or family medicine or primary care - and we searched in four different scientific databases: Medline-PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science and IEEX Xplore.

Results: We used a PRISMA diagram to identify studies and search the four main databases, we investigated 48 full text articles and when we applied our inclusion and exclusion criteria, 12 studies were included in this systematic review.

Conclusions: This systematic review covers the topics of remote consultation versus a traditional or classic physical consultation. Studies have shown its importance prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, and its value while in the mist of the pandemic then caring for infected patients. We have found that remote consultation is necessary, but it must be an improvement on the previous system. Teleconsultations can reduce the number of visits, especially during lockdown situations, with both patients and GPs satisfied with the method, but we should not forget that a physical consultation cannot be fully replaced by a remote consultation due to the limitations of the latter.