Whetton Sue
University Department of Rural Health, Tasmania, Australia.
J Telemed Telecare. 2005;11 Suppl 2:S98-100. doi: 10.1258/135763305775124678.
In telemedicine and telehealth, the perception of success is complex, varies according to time and context, and depends on the perspective of the observer. Several reviews of the evaluation literature have been undertaken in recent years. These reviews identify common methodological shortcomings. Telehealth services continue to be funded as short-term projects. While it is essential to address methodology issues, it is important to understand that studies of pilot projects provide only interim findings about the feasibility of such applications, not how well they operate as mature applications. This represents something of a conundrum: evaluation is expected to establish the long-term value of telehealth using criteria which are specific to short-term projects. A useful approach would be to develop frameworks enabling all similar studies (e.g. diabetic home care) to be examined in order to extract commonalities and differences. This would enable us to draw conclusions about where telehealth is effective, as well as what variables demonstrate 'success'.
在远程医疗和远程健康领域，对成功的认知是复杂的，会随时间和环境而变化，并且取决于观察者的视角。近年来，已经对评估文献进行了几项综述。这些综述指出了常见的方法学缺陷。远程健康服务仍作为短期项目获得资金支持。虽然解决方法学问题至关重要，但必须明白，试点项目研究仅提供有关此类应用可行性的初步结果，而非它们作为成熟应用的运行情况。这带来了一个难题：评估期望使用针对短期项目的特定标准来确定远程健康的长期价值。一种有用的方法是制定框架，以便能够对所有类似研究（如糖尿病家庭护理）进行审查，从而提取共性和差异。这将使我们能够得出关于远程健康在何处有效的结论，以及哪些变量表明“成功”。
