title: E-consulting in a medical specialist setting: Medicine of the future?
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Today's technology provides new ways of consulting between patients and medical specialists in health care, such as videoconferencing and web-messaging. In this systematic review we assessed the effects of e-consulting between medical specialists and patients.
  
  
  METHODS
  We searched MEDLINE, EMBASE, Psychlit and Cochrane Library for randomized clinical trials assessing the use of e-consulting methods (videoconferencing (VC) or web-messaging (WM)), as compared to conventional care (face-to-face (FF) or telephone consultations (TC)) in a medical specialist setting. We extracted patient-related, physician-related, cost, time and follow-up outcomes.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We included 21 trials, of which 17 addressed VC compared to FF, two compared WM with FF, one VC with TC, and one WM with TC. Physicians appeared to prefer face-to-face consultations over videoconferencing. Patients appeared to be as satisfied with videoconferencing as with face-to-face contacts, but preferred videoconferencing and web-messaging over telephone consultations. Videoconferencing was more expensive regarding equipment, but saved patient-related costs in terms of time, transportation, and missed work. Variable results were found for consult time and follow-up visits.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We cautiously conclude that e-consulting seems a feasible alternative to medical specialists' face-to-face follow-up or telephone appointments, but may be less suitable for initial consultations requiring physical examination.
authors.affiliation: Department of Quality and Process Innovation, Academic Medical Center at the University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Electronic address: l.c.zandbelt@amc.uva.nl.
authors.forename: Linda C
authors.initials: LC
authors.lastname: Zandbelt
authors.affiliation: Academic Medical Center at the University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Electronic address: froukjedekanter@msn.com.
authors.forename: Froukje E C
authors.initials: FE
authors.lastname: de Kanter
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Academic Medical Center at the University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Electronic address: d.ubbink@amc.uva.nl.
authors.forename: Dirk T
authors.initials: DT
authors.lastname: Ubbink
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D012017:Referral and Consultation / Q000639:trends*; D017216:Telemedicine; D013689:Telephone; D013997:Time Factors; D049269:Videoconferencing
keywords: Communication; Costs; E-consult; Physician–patient relationship; Satisfaction; Time; Videoconferencing; Web-messaging