Outcomes of using telehealth for the provision of healthcare to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people: a systematic review

Loading...
Thumbnail Image
File version

Version of Record (VoR)

Author(s)
Caffery, LJ
Bradford, NK
Wickramasinghe, SI
Hayman, N
Smith, AC
Griffith University Author(s)
Primary Supervisor
Other Supervisors
Editor(s)
Date
2017
Size
File type(s)
Location
Abstract

Objective: To examine reported outcomes of health services delivered by telehealth to Indigenous Australians. Methods: Systematic review of the literature. Searches were conducted to identify articles that reported a telehealth service used to provide clinical services to Indigenous Australians. Articles were screened for inclusion using pre‐defined criteria. Findings were synthesised narratively and reported using the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta‐analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. Results: 14 articles, describing 11 distinct telehealth services, were selected based on the inclusion criteria. Authors of included studies report that telehealth has improved social and emotional wellbeing, clinical outcomes and access to health services for Indigenous Australians. Further, it has reduced travel and improved screening rates. Indigenous people report positive perceptions of their telehealth interaction. Conclusion: Telehealth is used to address poor accessibility to health services and for targeted screening programs for at risk populations. Reported outcomes from existing services demonstrate the potential of telehealth for health service delivery for Indigenous Australians. Confidence in the findings of this review is reduced by the predominance of descriptive studies and small sample sizes in many of the included articles. Implications: Telehealth models of care facilitated through partnerships between Aboriginal community‐controlled health services and public hospitals may improve both patient outcomes and access to specialist services for Indigenous people.

Journal Title

Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health

Conference Title
Book Title
Edition
Volume

41

Issue

1

Thesis Type
Degree Program
School
Publisher link
Patent number
Funder(s)
Grant identifier(s)
Rights Statement
Rights Statement

© The Author(s) 2017. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) License, which permits unrestricted, non-commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, providing that the work is properly cited.

Item Access Status
Note
Access the data
Related item(s)
Subject

Health services and systems

Public health

Applied economics

Policy and administration

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander

Aborigine

Australia

Indigenous

health services

Persistent link to this record
Citation

Caffery, LJ; Bradford, NK; Wickramasinghe, SI; Hayman, N; Smith, AC, Outcomes of using telehealth for the provision of healthcare to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people: a systematic review, Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, 2017, 41 (1), pp. 48-53

Collections