Table 1.
Characteristics of the included studies
| Country | Date of publication | Study period | Aims and objectives | Quality assessment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cohort (open label, controlled) | |||||
| Gordon et al (2020)44 | USA | Nov 11, 2020 | April 8–June 10, 2020 | To describe an RPM programme for patients at home with COVID-19, with pulse oximetry, compared with patients with COVID-19 who were discharged and managed at home with no monitoring programme | ******* |
| Motta et al (2021)45 | Brazil | March 26, 2021 | NS | To develop an RPM system for patients at home with COVID-19 to detect emergencies and deterioration; a control group of healthy people was included, with no history of COVID-19, tobacco smoking, and respiratory or cardiac disease | ****** |
| Cohort (open label, uncontrolled) | |||||
| Blair et al (2021)46 | USA | Jan 5, 2021 | April 21–July 23, 2020 | To explore COVID-19 disease progression in the home setting and identify risk factors for severe disease, including silent hypoxia | ***** |
| Clarke et al (2021)14 | UK | Dec 16, 2020 | Summer 2020 (UK) | To assess the effectiveness of the use of pulse oximetry as a tool for monitoring patients at home with COVID-19 | ***** |
| Ford et al (2020)47 | USA | June 30, 2020 | March 7–April 22, 2020 | To assess the effectiveness of the use of an RPM system and virtual wards to support patients at home with suspected and confirmed COVID-19 | ***** |
| Hutchings et al (2021)48 | Australia | June 5, 2020 | March 11–29, 2020 | To describe an RPM model for monitoring patients with COVID-19 remotely at home | ***** |
| Ko et al (2020)49 | Singapore | Dec 31, 2020 | May 1–26, 2020 | To design a user-friendly RPM model with an interactive chatbot app for monitoring patients at home with COVID-19 to detect risk of deterioration | ***** |
| Kodama et al (2021)50 | USA | Dec 14, 2020 | NS | To assess the implementation and feasibility of an RPM system, with pulse oximetry as a tool for monitoring, for patients at home with COVID-19 | ***** |
| Krenitsky et al (2020)51 | USA | July 21, 2020 | March 23–April 30, 2020 | To monitor obstetric patients (pregnant and post partum) at home with confirmed or presumptive COVID-19 | **** |
| Kyriakides et al (2021)52 | UK | Jan 29, 2021 | April 1–May 30, 2020 | To assess the effect of the use of pulse oximetry for monitoring patients at home with COVID-19 to prevent hospital admissions | **** |
| Nunan et al (2020)53 | UK | Nov 17, 2020 | April 4–June 6, 2020 | To assess the feasibility of developing an RPM system for patients at home with COVID-19 | **** |
| Shah et al (2020)54 | USA | June 16, 2020 | March 20–April 22, 2020 | To assess an RPM system that uses pulse oximetry to monitor patients at home with COVID-19 | **** |
| Wilcock et al (2021)55 | UK | Jan 4, 2021 | May 14–Nov 30, 2020 | To assess the effectiveness of the use of pulse oximetry in identifying deterioration in patients monitored at home with COVID-19 | *** |
For quality assessment, we used the Newcastle–Ottawa Scale for assessing the risk of bias and the quality of the included studies; more stars means a lower risk of bias and higher quality. RPM=remote patient monitoring. NS=not specified.