Telemedicine and Digital Health Applications in Vascular Surgery

Abstract

Background: Telemedicine has the potential to revolutionize healthcare. While the development of digital health technologies for the management of patients with cardiovascular diseases has been increasingly reported, applications in vascular surgery have been far less specifically investigated. The aim of this review is to summarize applications related to telemedicine in vascular surgery, highlighting expected benefits, current limits and future directions. Methods: The MEDLINE database was searched using a combination of keywords to identify studies related to telehealth/telemedicine in three main pathologies, including aortic, peripheral artery and carotid disease. A comprehensive literature review was performed to identify the type of digital application, intended use, expected benefits, strengths and limitations. Results: Telemedicine can improve the management of patients through digital platforms allowing teleconsultation, telemonitoring or telecoaching. Intended use involved remote consultation with a vascular surgeon, applications to enhance education, self-management, follow-up or adherence to treatment or lifestyle changes. Conclusion: Telemedicine offers innovative perspectives to improve access to care in distant locations and optimize care through patients’ empowerment and personalized follow-up, contributing to the development of precision medicine. Huge efforts remain necessary for its implementation in daily clinical practice and involve ethical, legal, technical, economic and cultural considerations.

A RAND/UCLA-Modified VAS Study on Telemedicine, Telehealth, and Virtual Care in Daily Clinical Practice of Vascular Medicine

“…Such procedures were successfully reported in the field of vascular surgery during the COVID-19 pandemic [ 19 ]. A broader use of teleproctoring could be of benefit for remote areas and non-experienced centers [ 7 ]. Notably, the appropriate technical support is essential [ 19 ].…”

“…Telemedicine methods are crucial in promoting equal access to healthcare in remote regions. The ICT tools employed in telemedicine services enable access to high specialization, provide support for chronic condition management, and ensure continuity of care through multidisciplinary collaboration, serving as a vital resource for urgent healthcare services [ 6 , 7 , 8 ]. In recent years, there have been many telemedicine initiatives, but too often, they are traced back to experiments, prototypes, and projects and ultimately characterized by high rates of failure [ 2 ].…”

Artificial Intelligence Models in Health Information Exchange: A Systematic Review of Clinical Implications

“…The “digital health” area is expanding quickly and uses digital tools to enhance population health, patient outcomes, and healthcare administration [ 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 , 48 ].…”

Comprehensive Review of Natural Language Processing (NLP) in Vascular Surgery

“…In addition, various applications for patients with vascular diseases are currently being developed to enable telemedicine including telecoaching, telesurveillance, or telemonitoring. 3 These applications can provide support assistance for follow up, medication management, or engagement of patients for lifestyle changes such as promoting physical activity or health diet. 9 As an example, various telemedicine enhanced exercise programs have been developed for patients with LEAD to enhance education and patient adherence.…”

“…Health data are diverse and heterogeneous, including physiological, biological, imaging, administrative, billing data, and medical notes, as well as social and environmental data that can be collected through the use of digital devices. 2 , 3 They include structured data, defined by a standardised format and structure (i.e., diagnosis codes using standardised classification, biological values with pre-defined units, and also unstructured data, which do not have standardised organisation and formatting (i.e., clinical notes or reports). Much of the knowledge and medical information is still stored in free text format.…”