Objectives: To understand the application condition of telemedicine and discuss its future\ndevelopment strategy.\nMethods: A systematic search was undertaken for current application condition of telemedicine.\nTelemedicine, ehealth and telehealth were used as searching terms to retrieved follow three\ndatabases from their establishment to the end of June 2013: PubMed, Cochrane Library, Google\nScholar. Studies on patients and consumers, health professionals and family caregivers were\ninvolved. Studies such as overview, expert advice, lectures, announcements, conference\npresentations, project introductions were excluded.\nResults: 140 studies met the inclusion criteria which included 86 systematic reviews, 44 literature\nreviews, 1 evidence-based analysis, 1 original research, 2 evaluation and appraisal system reviews\nand 6 other types of studies. 18 studies are about mental health, 14 are endocrine gland, 13 are\nradiology, 12 are burns treatment, 8 are chronic disease and so on. Telemedicine application types\ncan be divided into the following four types: telemonitor, teleconsultation, tele reference,\nteletherapy.\nConclusion: Telemedicine has obtained great progress development, which could be developed\nbetter if following suggestions: more evidence on cost effectiveness of telemedicine in the level\nof policy are needed, a compromising attitudes to the telemedicine is needed in its initial stage,\nand telemedicine should be encouraged to be applied in disease prevention and health\nconsultation.
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