Table 5 Adoption of telehealth during COVID-19
High-Income Countries (HICs) | ||
Year | Author(s) | Key Findings |
2021 | James et al., [26] | The disruptive impact of COVID-19 has rapidly progressed the implementation and use of telehealth in Australian PHC as has occurred in other developed countries. |
2022 | Tang & Reddy, [27] | As cited in Tang & Reddy (2022), the U.S. saw an increase of 154% in telehealth visits at the end of March 2022 compared to the same period in 2019. |
2021 | Heneghan et al., [13] | A mixed-method study conducted in the UK and Canada postulates that although patient’s satisfaction with telehealth in musculoskeletal physical therapy is widely reported as high as face-to-face care, widespread adoption of telehealth within physical therapy has been slow. |
2021 | Reisinger-Kindle et al., [28] | There were 698 (39%) telehealth visits out of a total of 1788 prenatal visits by 558 patients. This shows that there was high adoption of telehealth during COVID-19 in Springfield, Massachusetts. |
2022 | Alpert et al., [29] | Telemedicine was not utilized in cancer care before COVID-19. The COVID-19 pandemic forced health systems to quickly adapt to telehealth use for cancer treatment. |
2021 | Rangachari et al., [3] | While specialties like psychiatry, cardiology, and radiology are recording higher telehealth use, others like allergy-immunology, family medicine, and gastroenterology are recording lower telehealth use. |
Low-and-Middle-Income Countries (LMICs) | ||
2021 | Cruz et al., [30] | Based on responses from a study conducted in Mozambique, 69% of respondents were willing to use teleconsultation public health services for mild illness and review consultations. It was realised that respondents were willing to adopt to telehealth use due to its relatively cheaper price of services. |
2021 | Ranjbar et al., [31] | Out of a total of 523 nurses and midwives who participated in the study, 73.0% had positive attitude towards telenursing and telehealth. Higher education was positively associated with the understanding of telehealth. |
2020 | Kazi et al., [32] | Telehealth was initially in its infancy in LMICs, however, the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the demand for telehealth following social distancing protocols globally. |