title: Do telemedical interventions improve quality of life in patients with COPD? A systematic review.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Telehealth is an approach to disease management, which may hold the potential of improving some of the features associated with COPD, including positive impact on disease progression, and thus possibly limiting further reduction in quality of life (QoL). Our objective was, therefore, to summarize studies addressing the impact of telehealth on QoL in patients with COPD.
  
  
  METHODS
  Systematic review.
  
  
  METHODS
  A series of systematic searches were carried out using the following databases: PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Controlled Trials Register, and ClinicalTrials.gov (last updated November 2015). A predefined search algorithm was utilized with the intention to capture all results related to COPD, QoL, and telehealth published since year 2000.
  
  
  METHODS
  Primary outcome was QoL, assessed by validated measures.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Out of the 18 studies fulfilling the criteria for inclusion in this review, three studies found statistically significant improvements in QoL for patients allocated to telemedical interventions. However, all of the other included studies found no statistically significant differences between control and telemedical intervention groups in terms of QoL.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Telehealth does not make a strong case for itself when exclusively looking at QoL as an outcome, since statistically significant improvements relative to control groups have been observed only in few of the available studies. Nonetheless, this does not only rule out the possibility that telehealth is superior to standard care with regard to other outcomes but also seems to call for more research, not least in large-scale controlled trials.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pulmonary Medicine, Hvidovre Hospital, Hvidovre, Denmark.
authors.forename: Thorbjørn L
authors.initials: TL
authors.lastname: Gregersen
authors.affiliation: Department of Pulmonary Medicine, Hvidovre Hospital, Hvidovre, Denmark.
authors.forename: Allan
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Green
authors.affiliation: Department of Pulmonary Medicine, Hvidovre Hospital, Hvidovre, Denmark.
authors.forename: Ejvind
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Frausing
authors.affiliation: Department of Pulmonary Medicine, Hvidovre Hospital, Hvidovre, Denmark; Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ringbæk
authors.affiliation: Department of Pulmonary Medicine, Hvidovre Hospital, Hvidovre, Denmark.
authors.forename: Eva
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Brøndum
authors.affiliation: Department of Pulmonary Medicine, Hvidovre Hospital, Hvidovre, Denmark; Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.
authors.forename: Charlotte
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Suppli Ulrik
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D029424:Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive / Q000628:therapy*; D011788:Quality of Life; D017216:Telemedicine
keywords: COPD; quality of life; review; telehealth care; telemedicine