Telemedicine in the emergency department: an overview of systematic reviews
Open accessAbstract
Aim There is both favorable and controversial evidence on the application of telemedicine in the emergency department (ED), which has created uncertainty regarding the effectiveness of these systems. We performed a systematic review of the literature on systematic reviews to provide an overview of the benefits and challenges to the application of telemedicine systems for the ED. Subject and methods PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, Cochrane Library, and Google Scholar databases were explored for systematic reviews of telemedicine applications for the ED. Each review was critically appraised by two authors for data items to be extracted and evaluated. The most highly recommended technology, feasibility, benefits, and challenges to the application of telemedicine systems were studied and reported. Results We identified 18 studies of varying methodological quality and summarized their key findings. Form these 18 studies, 12 papers yielded a high risk of bias in their investigation. Nine papers concluded that real-time video conferencing was the best method of delivery, eight papers found cost reduction as an outcome of implementing these systems, and six studies found technical and infrastructure issues as a challenge when implementing telemedicine for EDs. Conclusion There is strong evidence suggesting that the use of telemedicine positively impacts patient care. However, there are many challenges in implementing telemedicine that may impede the process or even impact patient safety. In conclusion, despite the high potential of telemedicine systems, there is still a need for better quality of evidence in order to confirm their feasibility in the ED.
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Barriers to accessing or communicating with professionals, and risks to confidentiality in teleconsultations, were frequently reported across included studies.
“Findings from the present review indicate that barriers to accessing or communicating with professionals, as well as risks to confidentiality in teleconsultations, such as leakage of sensitive information, unauthorized access and misuse of personal data, were frequently reported across the included studies [4,10].”
From Patient safety risk associated with synchronous telehealth: A scoping review (2025) · cites this paper as [10]
The Results table on challenges lists privacy, confidentiality and security concerns in 3 of 18 included reviews, and the Discussion identifies unauthorized access as a concern. The paper does not report barriers to accessing or communicating with professionals as a frequent finding; it instead describes improved access to specialist care as a benefit. It also does not establish that the specified confidentiality risks were frequently reported across the included studies. (LLM, conf=0.85)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredAdditional benefits such as cost reduction, improved resource utilization, and operational efficiency were noted in some reviews.
“although additional benefits such as cost reduction, improved resource utilization, and operational efficiency were noted in some reviews [10].”
From Patient safety risk associated with synchronous telehealth: A scoping review (2025) · cites this paper as [10]
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- Authors
- Sharifi Kia, A., Rafizadeh, M., & Shahmoradi, L.
- Affiliations
- Tehran University of Medical Sciences (IR)
- Corresponding author
- Shahmoradi, Leila
- Venue
- Journal of Public Health
- Published
- 2022-01-27
- Volume
- 31
- Issue
- 8
- Pages
- 1193-1207
- ISSN
- 0943-1853 (ISSN-L)
- 2198-1833
- 1613-2238
- PMC
- PMC8791673
- OpenAlex
- W4210660581
- Cited by
- 60
- References
- 32
- Citations by year
- 2026: 10 · 2025: 12 · 2024: 21 · 2023: 13 · 2022: 4
- FWCI
- 2.49
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Journal of Public Health (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Telemedicine and Telehealth Implementation
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Emergency Medicine › Emergency and Acute Care Studies
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management › Healthcare Systems and Technology
- Keywords
- telemedicine, emergency department, videoconferencing, cost reduction, patient safety, feasibility, technological infrastructure, quality of evidence
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