Telemedicine in lung transplant to improve patient-centered care: A systematic review

Long-term care combined with complex follow-up processes is among the essential needs of lung transplantation. Therefore, Telemedicine-based strategies can provide an effective approach for both patients and clinicians by applying remote patient monitoring. Hence, the main objective of this study was to investigate Telemedicine and telehealth usage in lung transplantation.

A systematic review was conducted in four databases using keywords. Eligible studies were all English papers that developed Telemedicine-based programs to enhance patient care in lung organ transplantation. The interventions were analyzed analysis to determine the main descriptive areas. The quality of the included articles was evaluated using Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool (MMAT) tool by two authors.

Of the 261 retrieved articles, 27 met our inclusion criteria. Of these, 22 studies were devoted to the post-transplantation phase. All articles were published from 2002 to 2021 and the trend of publications has increased in recent years. Most of the studies were conducted in the United States and Canada. All eligible studies can be categorized into five types of Telemedicine interventions, 15 (55.56%) articles devoted to Telemonitoring, four (14.81%) for Teleconsultation, four (14.81%) articles for Telerehabilitation, three (11.11%) articles for Telespirometery, and one (3.70%) article were done regarding Tele-education.

This integrated review provides researchers with a new understanding of Telemedicine-based care solutions. Findings show that remote patient care in lung transplantation includes various aspects, especially self-care improvement.