Mobile technologies to support communication between healthcare providers and management of care
Citation: Gonçalves-Bradley DC, J Maria AR, Ricci-Cabello I, et al. Mobile technologies to support healthcare provider to healthcare provider communication and management of care. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. 2020;(8):CD012927.
What is this? The COVID-19 pandemic is placing a strain on healthcare services and workers. Existing research into the use of mobile technologies to support healthcare providers might provide useful information for policy makers.
In this Cochrane review, the authors searched for randomized trials of mobile technologies for supporting communication and consultations between healthcare providers. They restricted their searches to articles published since 1 January 2000 and did the search on 22 July 2019. They included 19 trials (5766 participants), from Europe (6 trials), North America (9), Dominican Republic (1), Mongolia (1), Turkey (1) and Uganda (1). They judged most trials to have high risk of performance bias, and approximately half to have high risk of detection, attrition and reporting biases.
What works: Interventions including a mobile technology component to support healthcare provider to healthcare provider communication and management of care may reduce time between presentation and management of the person’s condition when primary care providers or emergency physicians use them to consult with specialists.
These interventions may increase the likelihood that participants with diabetes and those needing an ultrasound will receive a clinical examination.
These interventions may decrease the number of people attending primary care who are referred to secondary or tertiary care in some conditions, such as some skin problems and chronic kidney disease.
What doesn’t work: Nothing noted.
What’s uncertain: There is little evidence of the effects of these interventions on participants’ health status and well‐being, satisfaction or costs.