Telemedicine in orthopaedics during the COVID-19 pandemic
Citation: Kumar A, Sinha S, Jameel J, et al. Telemedicine trends in orthopaedics and trauma during the COVID-19 pandemic: A bibliometric analysis and review. Journal of Taibah University Medical Sciences. 2022;17(2):203-213.
Language: Abstract available in EN and AR. Full text available in EN.
Free to view: Yes.
Funding sources: The authors reported no external funding.
What is this? In this systematic review, the authors searched for articles on orthopaedic care related to telemedicine during the COVID-19 pandemic. They searched in May 2021 for articles published during or after 2020 and found 59 articles.
What was found: Most studies focused on the effectiveness, feasibility, and safety of telemedicine. Surveys showed widespread use of telemedicine for general and specialised orthopaedic needs, with relatively high patient and doctor satisfaction.
Implications: The authors stated that telemedicine was integral to the delivery of orthopaedic care during the COVID-19 pandemic. The use of telemedicine in outpatient care reduced the burden on hospitals. In the future, telemedicine may be used in emergency and inpatient orthopaedic care.
Other considerations: The authors of the review did not discuss their findings in the context of issues relating to health equity
This summary was prepared by Joly Ghanawi, checked by Grace Meng, and finalized by William Summerskill.