A systematic review of successes and failures in home telehealth. Part 2: Final quality rating results

Each of 130 studies about home telehealth was independently rated by three reviewers in terms of patient selection, specification of interventions, specification of analysis, patient disposal and outcomes reported. The mean ratings of study quality were used to calculate an overall decision-making score. From the decision-making score, a net evidence score was derived for each of the 26 diseases/conditions identified. The mean decision-making score, combining study design and quality ratings, was used for comparison with a preliminary report prepared in 2006. The inclusion of ratings of study quality strengthened and confirmed the original findings. In summary, there are good to high quality studies supporting the use of home telehealth in the areas of diabetes, the general area of mental health, high-risk pregnancy monitoring, heart failure, other cardiac conditions and smoking cessation. Incorporating the rating of study quality in systematic reviews is an important step which provides additional information about the strength of evidence available.