Table 4:

Study Outcomes of Randomized Controlled Trials (n=17)

Study	Intervention	Control	Primary Outcomes	Video Contact Time	Main Findings
Burns57	Speech pathology care delivered by TMed	Standard, in-person speech pathology care	Cost, number, session length, efficiency; service	Telepractice sessions weekly; appointments as needed (1 hour each)	Significant reduction in number (p = 0.004) and duration (p = 0.024) of contact events required to manage cases by telepractice
Burton84	Cognitive rehabilitation using TMed	Face-to-face care	Goal performance (Canadian Occupational Performance Measure)	Videoconferencing 1x/week	Lower rates of session completion among telehealth group may suggest lack of feasibility or acceptance. No statistical testing reported.
Comin-Colet58	Telemonitoring with video-conferencing	Face-to-face encounters	Non-fatal heart failure events	NR	Significant decrease in non-fatal HF events (p<0.001) with lower readmission rates (p=0.007), among telehealth group
De Luca80	Telemonitoring. Neurological / psychological video-counseling	Standard in-home nursing care	Psychological well-being; MMSE, ADL, IADL, GDS, BANSS, BPRS, EUROQoL	Video-counseling 1x per week	Significant differences only reported within telehealth group, T0 to T1: GDS (p<0.01), BPRS (p=.04), heart rate (p=.02), SAP (p<0.001), DAP (p=0.03)
Dichmann Sorknaes52	Video consults one week post-discharge	Usual follow-up care	Total # of hospital readmissions	Teleconsulations daily for 1 week	No difference in # of hospital re-admissions (p=0.62)
Dy53	Standard care with TMed	Standard home nursing care	Diabetes care; HbA1c point-of-care glucose,	Weekly or biweekly teleconsulations	SNF nurses reported TMed were a good use of their time; skills were effective for consult delivery . No statistical testing reported.
Gandolfi85	Home-based Virtual Reality balance training	In-clinic sensory integration balance training	Gait and balance; Berg Balance Scale	Tele-rehab session 3x/week (50 minutes each)	Improved BBS scores for telerehab group (p = 0.04); significant Time × Group Interactions in Dynamic Gait Index for in-clinic (p = 0.04)
Homma59	Lifestyle, health reports delivered by videophone	Printed document reports	Health status, body mass index, steps/day satisfaction;SBP/DBP, cholesterol	Monthly videophone sessions (15–20 minutes each)	Similar degrees of health status improvement & satisfaction levels (not significant)
Hong86	Tele-exercise program with one-on-one remote instruction	Maintenance of usual lifestyle	Sarcopenia-related factors of health; total and AMM, chair sit-and-reach length, 2-min step, chair stand	Tele-exercise sessions 3x per week (20–40 min each)	Improved lower-limb muscle mass (p=0.017), AMM (p=0.032), total muscle mass (p=0.033), chair sit-and-reach length (p=0.019)
Hong69	Exercise by TMed	Nutrition, exercise education, activity and nutrition monitoring	Fall-related risk factors	Tele-exercise sessions 3x/week (20–40 min each)	Greater improvement in chair stand test (p<0.001), Berg Balance Scale (p=0.02)
Ishani71	Case management & care TMed	Usual kidney disease care	All-cause mortality, emergency department visits, nursing home admits	At least 1 video visit, with more as needed for acute care concerns	No significant difference between groups for any component of the primary outcome
Jelecic87	Lexical tasks to enhance semantic verbal processing by Skype	Unstructured cognitive stimulation	Global cognitive performance; lexical-semantic; semantically-related or unrelated episodic verbal memory	One hour each morning	Improvements in global cognitive domain (p=0.001); non-inferior to in-person
Orlandoni88	Nutritional assessment delivered by TMed	Standard home-visits with nutritional assessment	Incidence of metabolic and GI complications secondary to home enteral nutrition	At least 1 monthly video consultation (< 10 minutes on average)	Significantly lower incidence of metabolic and GI complications among video consultation group (both p<0.001); no significant difference in hospital admission rate
aTakahashi89	Hospice care with TMed	Usual end-of-life care	# of hospital and emergency room visits	NR	No difference in hospitalizations, ER visits; mortality in telemonitoring higher compared to usual care (p=0.008)
bTrief54	TMed for diabetic coaching (in Spanish if needed)	Usual diabetic care	Adherence to diabetes management; HbA1c, Diabetes Self-Care Activities scale	Tele-visits every 4–6 weeks	Self-reported adherence improved for intervention compared to control (p<0.001)
Tsai70	Group-based telerehabilitation program	Usual care without exercise training	Endurance exercise capacity (ESWT)	Telerehab sessions 3x per week (1 hour each)	Improvement in ESWT (p<0.001)
Vahia55	Neurocognitive testing using TMed	In-person neurocognitive testing	Various Neurocognitive tests	1 test session per modality, administered 2 weeks apart	No differences in cognitive scores (p=0.280)

Abbreviations: ADL - Activities of Daily Living; AMM – appendicular muscle mass; BANSS - Bedford Alzheimer Nursing Severity scale; BBS – berg balance scale; BPRS - Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale; DBP – diastolic blood pressure; DGI – Dynamic gait index; ER – emergency room; ESWT - endurance shuttle walk test; EUROQoL - standardized instrument as a measure of health outcomes and quality of life; GDS = Geriatric Depression Scale; HbA1c – hemoglobin A1c; HF – heart failure; HR - heart rate; IADL - Instrumental Activities of Daily Living Scale; IT – information technology; MMSE - Mini Mental State Examination; NR – not reported; PD – parkinson’s disease; QoL - quality of life; SBP – systolic blood pressure; SNF – skilled nursing facility; TMed - telemedicine

^aThis paper is a upondary analysis of a Randomized Controlled Trial⁸⁹

^bThis paper is a secondary analysis of a previously published randomized controlled trial⁹⁰