title: Heart failure patients monitored with telemedicine: patient satisfaction, a review of the literature.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Remote monitoring of the clinical status of heart failure patients has developed rapidly and is the subject of several trials. Patient satisfaction is an important outcome, as recommended by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to use in clinical research, and should be included in studies concerning remote monitoring. The objective of this review is to describe the current state of the literature on patient satisfaction with noninvasive telemedicine, regarding definition, measurement, and overall level of patient satisfaction with telemedicine.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The Pubmed, Embase, Cochrane, and Cinahl databases were searched using heart failure-, satisfaction-, and telemedicine-related search terms. The literature search identified 193 publications, which were reviewed by 2 independent reviewers. Fourteen articles were included. None of the articles described a clear definition or concept of patient satisfaction with telemedicine. Patient satisfaction with telemedicine was measured with self-developed questionnaires or face-to-face or telephonic interviews. None of the articles used the same questionnaire or telephonic survey to measure patient satisfaction. Only one questionnaire was assessed for validity and reliability. In general, patients seemed to be satisfied or very satisfied with the use of telemedicine.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Measurement of patient satisfaction is still underexposed in telemedicine research and the measurement of patient satisfaction with telemedicine underappreciated with poorly constructed questionnaires.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiology, University Medical Center, Groningen, The Netherlands. i.h.kraai@thorax.umcg.nl
authors.forename: I H
authors.initials: IH
authors.lastname: Kraai
authors.forename: M L A
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Luttik
authors.forename: R M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: de Jong
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Jaarsma
authors.forename: H L
authors.initials: HL
authors.lastname: Hillege
mesh_terms: D006333:Heart Failure / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology; D006801:Humans; D008991:Monitoring, Physiologic / Q000379:methods* / Q000523:psychology; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D058998:Remote Sensing Technology / Q000379:methods; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D017216:Telemedicine / Q000379:methods*