Research on Telehealth and Chronic Medical Conditions: Critical Review, Key Issues, and Future Directions

Objective: To provide a critical review of studies on the impact of telecommunication-based interventions for persons with chronic disabilities. Design: Only those studies that focused on specific health care or clinical interview outcomes and included at least 1 comparison condition were selected for review. Ten studies met these criteria. Results: Overall, the results of initial studies suggest that telecommunication-based interventions may be an efficient and effective way of providing services for chronically disabled populations, even for those who have no previous experience with the technologies. Conclusions: The number of controlled trials examining telecommunication-based interventions for those with chronic disabilities remains small. Future research should endeavor to increase sample size, use conceptually meaningful control groups, focus on cost utility, and investigate which types of telecommunication-based interventions provide the best match with specific populations.