abstract: 'Background

  Health policies in most high income countries increasingly recommend

  provision of routine outpatient care via remote (video and/or telephone)

  appointments, especially due to the pandemic. This is thought to improve

  access to care and promote efficiency within resource-constrained health

  services. There is limited evidence about the impact on existing

  inequalities in the invitation and uptake of health services when remote

  outpatient care is offered.

  Aim

  To systematically review the evidence on the offer and/or uptake of

  real-time remote outpatient consultations in secondary and tertiary

  care, assessed according to key sociodemographic characteristics.

  Methods

  Seven electronic bibliographic databases were searched for studies

  reporting the proportion of patients with key characteristics (following

  PROGRESS Plus criteria) who were offered and/or accepted real-time

  remote outpatient consultation for any chronic condition. Comparison

  groups included usual care (face-to-face), another intervention, or

  offer/uptake within a comparable time period. Study processes were

  undertaken in duplicate. Data are reported narratively.

  Results

  Twenty-nine studies were included. Uptake of video consultations ranged

  from 5\% to 78\% and telephone consultations from 12\% to 78\%. Patients

  aged over 65, with lower educational attainment, on lower household

  incomes and without English as a first language were least likely to

  have a remote consultation. Females were generally more likely to have

  remote consultations than males. Non-white ethnicities were less likely

  to use remote consultations but where they did, were significantly more

  likely to choose telephone over video appointments (p<0.001).

  Conclusions

  Offering remote consultations may perpetuate or exacerbate existing

  health inequalities in access to healthcare. More research is needed on

  current health disparities by sociodemographic characteristics and to

  explore what works well for different patient groups and why so that

  processes can be designed to ameliorate these health disparities.'
affiliation: 'Jones, JE (Corresponding Author), Univ Birmingham, Inst Appl Hlth Res,
  Birmingham, W Midlands, England.

  Jones, Janet E.; Damery, Sarah L.; Phillips, Katherine; Retzer, Ameeta; Nayyar,
  Pamela; Jolly, Kate, Univ Birmingham, Inst Appl Hlth Res, Birmingham, W Midlands,
  England.

  Retzer, Ameeta, Univ Birmingham, Ctr Patient Reported Outcomes Res, Inst Appl Hlth
  Res, Birmingham, W Midlands, England.'
article-number: e0269435
author: Jones, Janet E. and Damery, Sarah L. and Phillips, Katherine and Retzer, Ameeta
  and Nayyar, Pamela and Jolly, Kate
author-email: j.e.jones@bham.ac.uk
author_list:
- family: Jones
  given: Janet E.
- family: Damery
  given: Sarah L.
- family: Phillips
  given: Katherine
- family: Retzer
  given: Ameeta
- family: Nayyar
  given: Pamela
- family: Jolly
  given: Kate
da: '2023-09-28'
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0269435
files: []
issn: 1932-6203
journal: PLOS ONE
keywords-plus: 'HEALTH INEQUALITIES; TELEMEDICINE USE; DIGITAL HEALTH; UNITED-STATES;

  TELEHEALTH; SURGERY; LANGUAGE; VISITS; LENS'
language: English
number: '6'
number-of-cited-references: '75'
orcid-numbers: 'Jones, Janet/0000-0002-9057-6956

  Jolly, Kate/0000-0002-6224-2115

  Damery, Sarah/0000-0003-3681-8608

  Phillips, Katherine/0000-0003-0674-605X'
papis_id: 6532ebc4c9ee11e3ecc589a93e185f56
ref: Jones2022realtimeremote
researcherid-numbers: 'Damery, Sarah/ABA-8641-2021

  '
tags:
- relevant
- review
times-cited: '2'
title: 'Real-time remote outpatient consultations in secondary and tertiary care:
  A systematic review of inequalities in invitation and uptake'
type: article
unique-id: WOS:000843567600097
usage-count-last-180-days: '0'
usage-count-since-2013: '0'
volume: '17'
web-of-science-categories: Multidisciplinary Sciences
year: '2022'