Telemedicine in the Care of Patients with Atopic Dermatitis: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Importance: More patients are opting for telemedicine because of its convenience and potential cost savings, especially post-COVID-19. This is also applicable to atopic dermatitis (AD).Objective: To investigate telemedicine's impact on the care of patients with AD.Methods: Relevant articles from five databases-namely, MEDLINE, Embase, Scopus, CINAHL, and the Cochrane Library-were searched up to August 1, 2023. Controlled prospective clinical trials, long-term follow-up studies, retrospective studies, and observational studies that assessed the effectiveness of telemedicine in terms of patient- and physician-reported outcomes of AD were included. A random-effects model was chosen to estimate all pooled data, with results presented in forest plots.Results: Regarding teleconsultation, four studies reported decreases in Patient-Oriented Eczema Measure (POEM), Investigator Global Assessment, Scoring Atopic Dermatitis, and Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI), which were comparable with the control arm. For electronic interventions, POEM and Hand Eczema Severity Index significantly decreased from baseline in favor of telemedicine (P = 0.0003 and P < 0.00001, respectively), while no difference was observed for Eczema Area and Severity Index and DLQI.Conclusions: Telemedicine can be a useful adjunct to traditional face-to-face consultations in AD but with potential cost savings and convenience for patients.