Spanning Distance and Culture in Psychiatric Education: A Teleconferencing Collaboration Between Cambodia and the United States

Telemental Health in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: A Systematic Review

“…Of the 19 included studies, eight were conducted on the Asian continent (India [ 2 , 28 – 32 ], Syria [ 33 ], Iran [ 34 ]), three in South America (Brazil [ 35 , 36 ], Peru [ 37 ]), four in Africa (South Africa [ 23 , 38 ], Nigeria [ 39 ], Somaliland [ 40 ]), and one in Europe (Russia [ 41 ]). However, three of the studies were cross-continental collaborative studies conducted between several developed and developing countries [ 42 – 44 ].…”

“…Several mental health-related issues were discussed in the 19 included articles. More than half of these studies focused on psychiatric illness and treatment in general [ 2 , 23 , 28 – 30 , 32 , 33 , 38 , 40 , 43 , 44 ]. Depression [ 34 , 36 ] was the second most frequently discussed psychiatric topic.…”

“…One central element of the method is a random allocation of patients to different interventions, which might help the researchers in identifying the actual effects of the interventions [ 28 – 31 , 34 – 37 ]. Five were identified as project evaluation studies [ 2 , 32 , 33 , 40 , 44 ]. In addition, four were classified as survey studies [ 23 , 39 , 41 , 43 ].…”

“…Three of the studies involved the conduction of telemental healthcare with the aid of online decision support systems [ 28 – 30 ] and one involved the use of both SMS text messaging and bibliotherapy [ 34 ]. One study investigated the use of videoconferencing combined with e-chatting [ 44 ]. Furthermore, two studies examined online therapy [ 39 , 41 ] while others studied e-counseling [ 43 ], store-and-forward technology [ 33 ], telephone follow-up calling [ 37 ], and the use of online discussion groups/forums [ 42 ], and one used both audiovisual therapy and bibliotherapy [ 31 ].…”

“…Five of the 19 included studies were evaluations of already implemented telemental healthcare projects [ 2 , 32 , 33 , 40 , 44 ]. Therefore, these studies mainly reported on various sociotechnical outcomes of the implemented telemental projects including context factors [ 2 , 32 , 44 ], user and institutional technology acceptance issues [ 2 , 32 , 40 ], suitable technical solutions and challenges [ 32 , 33 , 40 , 44 ], and facilitative implementation factors [ 2 , 32 , 33 , 44 ]. All these studies indicated that low-cost, readily available, culturally sensitive, and easy-to-operate mobile technologies had successfully achieved a high user acceptance and increased adoption rates in developing countries [ 32 , 33 , 40 ].…”