The AHRQ Evidence-based Practice Center (EPC) Program supports the quality of healthcare by providing the best available evidence on medications, devices, and healthcare services with the goal of helping healthcare professionals, patients, policymakers, and healthcare systems make informed and evidence-based health care decisions. Telehealth research supports the overall AHRQ mission of producing evidence to make health care safer, higher quality, more accessible, equitable, and affordable, and to work within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and with other partners to make sure that the evidence is understood and used. Identifying gaps in telehealth research can inform future studies and outline areas that need to be addressed to inform clinical practice to improve the Nation's overall health and well-being.

To identify evidence gaps to inform telehealth, the AHRQ EPC program examined all reviews conducted by an AHRQ EPC between April 2019 through March 2023 that addressed a research topic in telehealth. Telehealth is the use of information and telecommunications technology to provide or support healthcare across time and/or distance. It is a tool with the potential to increase access, improve the quality of care, increase patient satisfaction, positively impact patient outcomes, and reduce the cost of care.

The five identified reports are presented in descending order, by date. The purpose, key messages, and evidence gaps identified in each review are summarized. Evidence gaps are organized by population, intervention, outcomes, and study design to facilitate ease of use. Detailed descriptions of the gaps are also available in the original report as provided in hyperlinks.

The telehealth gaps identified in the following pages are provided to inform research funders, researchers, and policymakers about the types of questions that need to be addressed and the types of studies necessary to address these questions.

For more information, contact Angela.Carr@ahrq.hhs.gov or EPC@ahrq.hhs.gov or visit the Effective Health Care Program.

Carr A, Bañez LL, Huppert J, Iyer S, Chang C, Umscheid CA. AHRQ EPC Program Research Gaps Summary: Telehealth. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Methods Research Report. AHRQ Publication No 23-EHC015. Rockville, MD: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality; April 2023. DOI: https://doi.org/10.23970/AHRQEPCGAPSTELEHEALTH. Posted final reports are located on the Effective Health Care Program search page.