Table 2 Adoption of telehealth before COVID-19

High-Income Countries (HICs)

Year

Authour(s)

Key Findings

 2017

Kayyali et al., [14]

Although the Whole System Demonstrator (WSD) project, which is considered the world’s largest randomised controlled trial (RCT) on telehealth showed that telehealth can significantly reduce hospital admission rates (P=0.0017), the length of stay (P=0.023), and mortality rates (P<0.001), telehealth adoption is still poor in the UK.

 2012

Zanaboni & Wootton, [1]

Almost no telehealth application had reached large-scale and enterprise-wide adoption as of 2012. The widespread use of telehealth was underdeveloped and needed strengthened new research directions.

 2015

Bradford et al., [10]

A study conducted in the Queensland community in Australia makes it known that out of the 60% of participants who were aware of telehealth, only 13% had used telehealth services. This shows that although people know about telehealth, only a few people use it.

 2019

Maia et al., [7]

A study conducted in Portugal shows that telehealth is a complementary healthcare service and only compensates for existing asymmetries and inadequate resources.

Low-and-Middle-Income Countries (LMICs)

 2013

Wamala & Augustine, [12]

Observations from Wamala & Augustine (2013) postulate dearth commitment and efforts to the optimise use of telehealth in Africa. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, countries like Ethiopia and South Africa recorded some progress in the adoption of telehealth, while others like Nigeria and Burkina Faso recorded slow progress as a result of lack of political will.

 2014

Van Dyk L. [11]

Although telehealth has the potential to increase accessibility and quality of healthcare, there was slow or no widespread adoption of telehealth in most LMICs. In South Africa, telehealth services that were successful in the pilot phase could not be sustained.