Telemedicine, telehealth or e-health? A bibliometric analysis of the trends in the use of these terms
Telemedicine, telehealth or e-health? A bibliometric analysis of the trends in the use of these terms
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DOI：
10.1258/jtt.2012.gth108
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发表时间：
2012-01-01
影响因子：
4.7
通讯作者：
Wootton, Richard
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Fatehi, Farhad;Wootton, Richard
“远程医疗”、“远程保健”和“电子保健”等术语经常互换使用。我们检查了这些术语在Scopus数据库中的出现情况。共有11，644份文件在标题或摘要中包含三个术语之一。远程医疗是最常见的术语，有8 028份文件提到它，其次是电子保健（n = 2 573），然后是远程保健（n = 1 679）。126个国家的文件中提到了远程医疗; 55个国家和99个国家的出版物中分别出现了远程保健和电子保健这两个术语。标题或摘要中有远程医疗的文件最早出现在1972年，直到1994年才开始迅速增加;远程保健显示出类似的模式，但大约五年后才开始增长。虽然含有电子保健一词的文章出现的时间晚于其他两个词，但增长率较高。文章（期刊论文）是三个关键术语中最常见的类型，其次是会议论文和综述文章。远程医疗或远程保健或电子保健的出版率与其他两个相对较新的研究领域进行了比较：微创手术（MIS）和高效抗逆转录病毒疗法（HAART）。关于HAART的出版物似乎已经达到了一个高峰，现在正在下降，但那些与三个关键术语和那些关于MIS都在增长。这三个术语的采用程度不同，表明其定义模糊不清，所指概念不明确。
The terms 'telemedicine', 'telehealth' and 'e-health' are often used interchangeably. We examined the occurrence of these terms in the Scopus database. A total of 11,644 documents contained one of the three terms in the title or abstract. Telemedicine was the most common term, with 8028 documents referring to it, followed by e-health (n = 2573) and then telehealth (n = 1679). Telemedicine was referred to in documents from 126 countries; the terms telehealth and e-health were found in publications from 55 and 99 countries, respectively. Documents with telemedicine in their title or abstract first appeared in 1972, and continued to appear at a low rate until 1 994 when they started to increase rapidly; telehealth showed a similar pattern, but with the growth beginning about five years later. Although articles containing the term e-health appeared later than the other two terms, the rate of increase was higher. Articles (journal papers) were the most common type for the three key terms, followed by conference papers and review articles. Publication rates for telemedicine or telehealth or e-health were compared with two other relatively new fields of study: Minimally Invasive Surgery (MIS) and Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy (HAART). Publications concerning HAART seem to have reached a peak and are now declining, but those with the three key terms and those concerning MIS are both growing. The variation in the level of adoption for the three terms suggests ambiguity in their definition and a lack of clarity in the concepts they refer to.