JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

As healthcare practitioners adapt their care to the COVID-19 pandemic, remote monitoring technologies (RMTs) play a key role in supporting SARS-COV-2 infected patients while also mitigating the spread of disease. It is important to track and evaluate the development and implementation of these technologies during early stages of the pandemic to guide their use moving forward.

Objective:

The aim of this rapid review is to describe and identify the barriers and benefits of implementing remote monitoring for COVID-19 patients during the earlier stages of the pandemic, with special emphasis on equity considerations.

Methods:

A search of Embase and Medline was conducted for records published before July 6th, 2020. Synthesis involved summative content analysis of reported benefits and barriers to the use of RMTs.

Results:

Of 491 records identified, 48 papers were included in this review describing 35 distinct RMTs. Following content analysis there were 34 distinct codes describing advantages of RMT which mapped to 10 themes overall. Further, there were 52 distinct codes describing barriers to implementation of RMT which were mapped to 18 themes. Prominent themes tied to benefits included a lower burden of care (e.g. for healthcare practitioners and informal caregivers), reduced infection risk, and support for vulnerable populations. Prominent themes regarding barriers included equity-related barriers (e.g. unable to afford technology, low network quality, low health literacy), the need for additional resources, and a lack of guidelines for remote monitoring.

Conclusions:

This study and previous work indicate greater guidance is needed in implementing remote monitoring interventions to treat COVID-19. This guidance is necessary to optimize the benefits of RMTs such as reduction of patient and health care practitioner infection risk while also limiting harms such as violations of patient privacy. Additionally, an equity lens when implementing RMTs, and further patient involvement in the development of user-friendly technology are necessary to ensure that RMTs are leveraged to decrease health inequities and do not exacerbate the existing lack of access to care among vulnerable populations.