Remote Consultations in England During COVID-19: Challenges in Data Quality, Linkage, and Research Validity
The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the adoption of remote consultations across health care, requiring rapid adjustments in service delivery. Consequently, there is an urgent need to understand the impact of remote consultations on health pathways. This viewpoint paper explores key challenges in data sources in England that hinder research on the impact of remote consultations on health outcomes. Based on our experience conducting research on this topic, we present variations in observational study findings and their validity, considering differences in population characteristics and data sources. We provide recommendations to enhance data quality for future research, including improvements in data recording platforms and strengthened structures for linking primary and secondary care electronic health records.
Authors
- Thomas E Beaney (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9709-7264)
- Geva Greenfield (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9779-2486)
- Liliana Hidalgo-Padilla (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8451-7215)
- Mariana Pinto da Costa (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5966-5723)
- M. Dabbous
- Eoin Gogarty (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4137-4220)
- Nirandeep Rehill (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4179-0996)
- Benedict Hayhoe (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2645-6191)
- Gabriele Keziah Kerr (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3170-3211)
- Fiona Gaughran (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7414-5569)
- Rosalind Raine (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0904-749X)
- Kristoffer Halvorsrud (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8813-0939)
- Robert Stewart (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4435-6397)
- Gideon Gideon
Institutions
- King's College London (GB)
- South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust (GB)
- University College London (GB)
- Imperial College London (GB)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Online Journal of Public Health Informatics
- Published
- 2025-06-22
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.2196/66672
- Primary Topic
- Telemedicine and Telehealth Implementation
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00