Virtual burn care - Friend or foe? A systematic review

Introduction: Evidence on the impact of virtual care for patients with burn injuries is variable. This review aims to evaluate its use in remote assessment, rounding, and follow-up through outcomes of efficacy, usability, costs, satisfaction, clinical outcomes, impacts on triage and other benefits/drawbacks. Methods: A PRISMA-compliant qualitative systematic review (PROSPERO CRD42021267787) was conducted in four databases and the grey literature for primary research published between 01/01/2010 and 12/31/2020. Study quality was appraised using three established tools. Evidence was graded by the Oxford classification. Results: The search provided 481 studies, of which 37 were included. Most studies (n = 30, 81%) were Oxford Level 4 (low-level descriptive/observational) designs and had low appraised risk -of -bias (n = 20, 54%). Most applications were for the acute phase (n = 26, 70%). High patient compliance, enhanced specialist access, and new educational/networking opportunities were beneficial. Concerns pertained to IT/connection, virtual communication barriers, privacy/data-security and logistical/language considerations. Low -to -moderate -level (Oxford Grade C) evidence supported virtual burn care's cost-effectiveness, ability to improve patient assessment and triage, and efficiency/effectiveness for remote routine follow-up. Conclusion: We find growing evidence that virtual burn care has a place in acute -phase specialist assistance and routine outpatient follow-up. Low -to -moderate -level evidence supports its effectiveness, cost-effectiveness, usability, satisfactoriness, and capacity to improve triage. (c) 2024 Elsevier Ltd and ISBI. All rights reserved.