The opportunities and challenges of Tele-Cardiology in health care systems: A systematic review

Telecardiology provides a useful diagnostic tool for accurate and rapid diagnosis of patients with cardiac disorders to specialist and general practitioners. In this study, a systematic review was conducted to identify effective components and approaches in Telecardiology, such as the opportunities and challenges of applying this system in different domains.

Information sources or data:

 This review study was conducted by a systematic search for studies and articles of telecardiology in the databases of Scopus, PubMed, Science Direct, ProQuest and EBSCO. The keywords such as  Challenges, Opportunity, Telecardiology, Workflow, Tele electrocardiogram and Telehealth were used to search articles.

Selection methods for study:

 All types of Telecardiology studies were reviewed without time limitation. Articles were reviewed using the PRISMA checklist. Of 6770 articles obtained through database searching, 11 articles were finally included in the study.

Among the most opportunities cited in the articles, we can mention faster and more access to services, reduction of misdiagnosis, and saving time. One of the main challenges of this system is the lack of equipment and physicianschr('39') unwillingness to use technology. Most studies were performed in Australia (29%) and the most frequently reported opportunity was rapid diagnosis (64. 29%).

The results of this study indicate that Telecardiology, in addition to opportunities, also has challenges, but a large number of opportunities indicates the effectiveness of this technology in health care systems.