The current condition and future development of telemedicine： systematic review

Objectives: To understand the application condition of telemedicine and discuss its future development strategy.
Methods: A systematic search was undertaken for current application condition of telemedicine. Telemedicine, ehealth and telehealth were used as searching terms to retrieved follow three databases from their establishment to the end of June 2013: PubMed, Cochrane Library, Google Scholar. Studies on patients and consumers, health professionals and family caregivers were involved. Studies such as overview, expert advice, lectures, announcements, conference presentations, project introductions were excluded.
Results: 140 studies met the inclusion criteria which included 86 systematic reviews, 44 literature reviews, 1 evidence-based analysis, 1 original research, 2 evaluation and appraisal system reviews and 6 other types of studies. 18 studies are about mental health, 14 are endocrine gland, 13 are radiology, 12 are burns treatment, 8 are chronicdisease and so on. Telemedicine application types can be divided into the following four types: telemonitor, teleconsultation, telereference, teletherapy.
Conclusion: Telemedicine has obtained great progress development, which could be developed better if following suggestions: more evidence on cost effectiveness of telemedicine in the level of policy are needed, a compromising attitudes to the telemedicine is needed in its initial stage, and telemedicine should be encouraged to be applied in disease prevention and health consultation.