Norman S
Swansea University, Swansea, Wales, UK. TR.wales.nhs.uk
J Psychiatr Ment Health Nurs. 2006 Dec;13(6):771-7. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2850.2006.01033.x.
This paper examines the potential effects of using video-conferencing within the field of mental health in the UK. In order to assess the usefulness of telepsychiatric services, an electronic search was conducted for articles published between August 1998 and July 2006 using the MEDLINE, EMBASE, PsychINFO and Telemedicine and Information Exchange (TIE) databases. The search was carried out using the following terms: telepsychiatry, videoconferencing and telepsychology. A total of 178 articles were identified and based on review of the abstracts 72 were identified as being specific to efficacy, cost-effectiveness and satisfaction with psychiatric services delivered via videoconferencing. This paper concludes that the use of video conferencing can enhance psychiatric services within the UK especially for those patients who live in rural areas. Current advances in technology make this an increasingly more reliable and cost-effective method for assessing patients. The limitations of telemedicine are discussed and it is clear that this type of care is not suitable for all patients. Further research is required to assess the types of patients that telepsychiatry is most suitable for.
本文探讨了在英国心理健康领域使用视频会议的潜在影响。为了评估远程精神病学服务的实用性，利用MEDLINE、EMBASE、PsychINFO以及远程医疗与信息交换（TIE）数据库，对1998年8月至2006年7月发表的文章进行了电子检索。检索使用了以下术语：远程精神病学、视频会议和远程心理学。共识别出178篇文章，基于摘要审查，其中72篇被确定为专门针对通过视频会议提供的精神病学服务的疗效、成本效益和满意度。本文得出结论，视频会议的使用可以改善英国的精神病学服务，特别是对于那些居住在农村地区的患者。当前的技术进步使这成为一种越来越可靠且具有成本效益的患者评估方法。文中讨论了远程医疗的局限性，显然这种护理方式并不适合所有患者。需要进一步研究以评估远程精神病学最适合的患者类型。
