News: Study aims to find what amount of telehealth is ’enough’

A research team at the University of West Virginia (WVU) completed a systematic review to identify evidence of the appropriate amount of telehealth intervention services for chronic illness patients that show the most benefit. The study found that, in general, telehealth services benefitted chronic patients more if they continued for one year, rather than ending after six months.

The team found that regardless of the form of telehealth, it produced the most positive results in patients who received the services for specifically 51 weeks. In contrast, patients receiving telehealth services for only 38 weeks produced mixed results.

While the results provide some insight, researchers note that there is still not enough data available about telehealth visits to draw any conclusions. Based on the current data on telehealth, researchers said they are still unable to determine how often telehealth should be used to impact outcomes.

Editor’s note: The WVU research study can be found here.