The Role of Telemedicine for Evaluation and Management of Dizzy Patients: A Systematic Review

OBJECTIVES: To conduct a scoping systematic review of the literature on the use of telemedicine to evaluate, diagnose, and manage patients with dizziness.

DATA SOURCES: Web of Science, SCOPUS, and MEDLINE PubMed databases.

STUDY SELECTION: The inclusion criteria included the following: pertaining to telemedicine and the evaluation, diagnosis, treatment, or management of dizziness. Exclusion criteria included the following: single-case studies, meta-analyses, and literature and systematic reviews.

DATA EXTRACTION: Outcomes recorded for each article included the following: study type, patient population, telemedicine format, dizziness characteristics, level of evidence, and quality assessment.

DATA SYNTHESIS: The search returned 15,408 articles, and a team of four screened the articles for inclusion criteria status. A total of 9 articles met the inclusion criteria and were included for review. Of the nine articles, four were randomized clinical trials, three were prospective cohort studies, and two were qualitative studies. The telemedicine format was synchronous in three studies and asynchronous in six studies. Two of the studies involved acute dizziness only, four involved chronic dizziness only, one involved both acute and chronic dizziness, and two did not specify dizziness type. Six of the studies included the diagnosis of dizziness, two involved the evaluation of dizziness, and three involved treatment/management. Some of the reported benefits of telemedicine for dizziness patients included cost savings, convenience, high patient satisfaction, and improvement in dizziness symptoms. Limitations included access to telemedicine technology, Internet connectivity, and dizziness symptoms interfering with the telemedicine application.

CONCLUSIONS: Few studies investigate the evaluation, diagnosis, or management of dizziness using telemedicine. The lack of protocols and standards of care for telemedicine evaluation of dizzy patients creates some challenges in care delivery; however, these reviewed studies provide examples of the breadth of care that has been provided remotely.