Review article: Prehospital telehealth for emergency care: A scoping review

Abstract

Telehealth has been successfully implemented in the prehospital setting to expedite emergency care, although applications are still in their infancy. With recent advances in technologies, it is not described how prehospital telehealth has evolved over the past decade. This scoping review aimed to answer the research question ‘what telehealth platforms have been used to facilitate communication between prehospital healthcare providers and emergency clinicians in the past decade?’. The review was guided by Joanna Briggs Institute scoping review methodology and reported in accordance with the PRISMA checklist for scoping reviews. A systematic search of five databases and Google Scholar was undertaken using key terms ‘prehospital’, ‘ambulance’, ‘emergency care’ and ‘telehealth’, and results were limited to research articles published in English language between 2011 and 2021. Articles were included if they related to the research question and reported quantitative, qualitative, mixed‐method or feasibility studies. A total of 28 articles were included in the review that reported feasibility (n = 13), intervention (n = 7) or observational studies (n = 8) involving 20 telehealth platforms. Platforms were commonly implemented to provide prehospital staff with medical support for general emergency care and involved a range of devices that were used to transmit video, audio and biomedical data. The benefits of prehospital telehealth to patients, clinicians and organisations were identified. Challenges to telehealth involved technical, clinical and organisational issues. Few facilitators of prehospital telehealth were identified. Telehealth platforms to facilitate prehospital to ED communication continue to develop but require technological advances and improved network connectivity to support implementation in the prehospital environment.

Experiences with the quality of telemedical care in an offshore setting – a qualitative study

“…Studies have shown that different health professions each have their own linguistic communication style and that ineffective communication between the partners can negatively affect health care outcomes [25,26]. Miscommunication between the teleconsulting partners already has been identified as one of the most-common preventable risks to patient safety [25][26][27][28][29][30][31]. Additionally, communication training can alter and improve handling and treatment of primary health care patients even via telemedical consultation [32][33][34].…”

Clinical Research in Prehospital Care: Current and Future Challenges

“…The advent of telemedicine has also played a role in the evolution of clinical research in prehospital care. Telemedicine allows EMS providers to consult with physicians and other healthcare providers in real-time, providing access to expert advice and improving patient outcomes [98,99]. One example of the use of telemedicine in prehospital care is the Stroke Prehospital Assessment and Treatment program, which allows EMS providers to transmit brain imaging and other data to stroke specialists in real time, improving the speed and accuracy of diagnosis and treatment.…”