Tele-education and teleconsultation in oropharyngeal dysphagia: literature review

Abstract

stract The new technologies available to attend the population with oropharyngeal dysphagia using telehealth have shown numerous advantages. Thus, the aim of this study was to survey the scientific works in telehealth area in oropharyngeal dysphagia, seeking to understand the scientific evidence in tele-education and telerehabilitation. Data research was made in PubMed/MEDLINE, LILACS and SciELO, on unbounded period, with the terms: telehealth and dysphagia, teleconsultation and dysphagia, telehealth and swallowing disorders, remote consultation and dysphagia. There were included online original works, literature reviews and case reports of dysphagia in telecare and tele-education. Thirty four studies were found only in PubMed/MEDLINE database. The analysis included information about the subject of the article, type of publication, aim of the study, methodological characteristics, results, conclusions and the evidence level. The exclusion/inclusion criteria were applied and fifteen articles were analyzed, most from the United States and Australia, in the last five years. Eleven of the fifteen studies reviewed were experimental studies, four were reviews of the literature and one was a case report. Twelve of these articles were about teleconsultation, two were about tele-education and one of them reviewing on both. The aim of most researchers was to verify the viability of teleconsultation, pursuing promising results and conclusions. The level of evidence found was two in most studies, demonstrating lack of articles in this area. Thus, it was concluded that the literature in the oropharyngeal dysphagia tele-health has approached predominantly the teleconsultation. However, there is a lack of clinical studies on this area.