Telehealth in Primary Health Care: A Scoping Review of the Literature.

BACKGROUND

The use of telehealth as a viable mobility to deliver quality services steadily increases in various levels of the health system. Despite the increasing use of telemedicine in secondary and tertiary health care services, there is a long way to go in the use of this technology in public health and primary health care (PHC). This study aimed to explore the features, approaches, and various dimensions of telehealth in PHC.

METHODS

A scoping review was conducted using the Arksey and O'Malley framework. A search was conducted in three bibliographic databases including PubMed, Web of Sciences, and Scopus and in Google Scholar to collect papers published in November 2018 to 2000. Data were extracted according to a predefined form and check for completeness and accuracy by a second reviewer.

RESULTS

Through reviewing papers, the authors extracted information on the general characteristics and features of telehealth services, kinds of PHC services delivered via telehealth, hardware and software facilities used for providing health care through telehealth services packages, as well as their benefits, outcomes and obstacles.

CONCLUSION

Telehealth can be used for different purposes of PHC through deploying a full range of communication channels available to the public. Due to the opportunistic use of existing devices and platforms, telehealth can provide scalable PHC services nationwide and worldwide. However, implementing telehealth in PHC faces challenges from technical, organizational, and human perspectives. Digital equity (in terms of technology access and e-health literacy) is required to expand telehealth services to the populations in underserved areas.