Rahmah Laila, Purnomo Athaya Febriantyo, Alizadeh Maryam, Askari Soraya Shareef, Lutfiana Nurul Cholifah, Mundakir Mundakir, Anas Muhammad, Sukadiono Sukadiono, Ingle Lee, Ince Fuat, Hassanzadeh Gholamreza, Shariat Ardalan
Department of Digital Health, School of Medicine, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Muhammadiyah Surabaya, Surabaya, East Java, Indonesia.
BMC Med Educ. 2025 May 5;25(1):649. doi: 10.1186/s12909-025-07207-6.
Telehealth interventions have proven essential in maintaining healthcare delivery during the global pandemic. However, its broader adoption within different healthcare settings has been impacted by inconsistent and non-standardized terminology, which poses challenges to global implementation and stakeholder communication. This article addresses these barriers by analyzing telehealth-related terms and developing a detailed clinical guide to aid inter-professional health educators in adopting standardized terminology, improving clarity, and fostering collaboration.
A mixed-methods approach was used, comprising four phases. Phase 1 included weekly online journal club sessions (February to August 2024) focused on digital health topics, where relevant terms were discussed and extracted. Phase 2 involved detailed transcription analysis to identify telehealth-related terms based on their frequency of use and relevance to digital health. Phase 3 was a systematic literature review to contextualize and refine the identified terms. Phase 4 entailed expert validation, where five digital health professionals reviewed the proposed terminology and provided refinements. Additionally, terms were cross-referenced with the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) database to evaluate their existing definitions.
A total of 314 telehealth terms were identified through discussions in the International Journal Club in Digital Health (IJC DH) and a literature review. Approximately 90.44% of these terms were sourced from 12 journal club sessions, covering topics such as Digital Health, Digital Psychiatry, Neurorehabilitation, and Robotic Surgery. The literature review contributed 30 unique terms, with further analysis revealing that 73% of the terms were not defined in the MeSH database. This finding underscores the evolving nature of telehealth and the need for terminology standardization. Expert reviews validated most proposed definitions, though specific terms required additional discussion.
The resulting standardized terminology guide enhances inter-professional collaboration in telehealth by providing clear and consistent definitions. This guide reduces miscommunication, facilitates interdisciplinary research and practice, and can be integrated into educational curricula to prepare future healthcare professionals for the complexities of digital health. By addressing terminology gaps, this study supports the advancement of telehealth education and improves patient care outcomes.
远程医疗干预在全球大流行期间已被证明对维持医疗服务至关重要。然而，其在不同医疗环境中的更广泛采用受到了术语不一致和不标准化的影响，这给全球实施和利益相关者沟通带来了挑战。本文通过分析远程医疗相关术语并制定详细的临床指南来解决这些障碍，以帮助跨专业的健康教育工作者采用标准化术语、提高清晰度并促进合作。
采用了混合方法，包括四个阶段。第一阶段包括每周一次的在线期刊俱乐部会议（2024年2月至8月），重点讨论数字健康主题，在会上讨论并提取相关术语。第二阶段涉及详细的转录分析，根据使用频率和与数字健康的相关性来识别远程医疗相关术语。第三阶段是系统的文献综述，以将识别出的术语进行背景化和完善。第四阶段需要专家验证，由五位数字健康专业人员审查提议的术语并提出改进意见。此外，还将这些术语与医学主题词（MeSH）数据库进行交叉引用，以评估其现有定义。
通过数字健康国际期刊俱乐部（IJC DH）的讨论和文献综述，共识别出314个远程医疗术语。其中约90.44%的术语来自12次期刊俱乐部会议，涵盖数字健康、数字精神病学、神经康复和机器人手术等主题。文献综述贡献了30个独特的术语，进一步分析表明，73%的术语在MeSH数据库中未被定义。这一发现凸显了远程医疗的不断发展性质以及术语标准化的必要性。专家审查验证了大多数提议的定义，不过特定术语需要进一步讨论。
最终形成的标准化术语指南通过提供清晰一致的定义，增强了远程医疗中的跨专业合作。本指南减少了沟通不畅，促进了跨学科研究和实践，并可纳入教育课程，使未来的医疗专业人员为数字健康的复杂性做好准备。通过解决术语差距，本研究支持了远程医疗教育的发展并改善了患者护理结果。
