Socio-Economic Impact of Telehealth: Evidence Now for Health Care in the Future Volume One: State of the Science Review

s identified through the search strategy were entered in Reference Manager and were grouped into ten subject areas: Paediatric telehealth First Nations telehealth Geriatric telehealth Tele-homecare Tele-mental health Teleradiology and Tele-ultrasound Renal Dialysis telehealth Rural & Remote telehealth Telerehabilitation It was decided that the subject areas of teleradiology and tele-ultrasound would be combined (due to the relatively low number of tele-ultrasound studies), bringing the total number of subject areas to twelve. From this point forward, reference to teleradiology incorporates tele-ultrasound. Some abstracts fell into more than one category, for instance, articles pertaining to both First Nations and Rural & Remote telehealth. The abstracts were distributed amongst three study investigators. Investigators reviewed abstracts and designated each as ‘in’, ‘out’ or ‘uncertain’, based on the following considerations: 1. The study is actually about telehealth. 2. There is comparison of telehealth with non-telehealth. 3. The study includes consideration of at least one of the issues in the list outlined in the study proposal: Social Determinants of Health Socio-economic performance of a community • poverty • social isolation • education • life stress • early life • access to transport • nutrition • access to health services and care • economy • labour markets • innovation • environment • education • health 4. Abstracts which contained no details (might be title only), were included for selection if there was uncertainty about whether appropriate for the study. Abstract citations designated as ‘in’ or ‘uncertain’ were returned to the main office where they were ordered, retrieved, and sent to the investigators. During this process, three additional areas for analysis were identified: Telehealth reviews Telehealth policy Economic analysis of telehealth