An analysis of the specialized literature in the field of telemedicine.

We studied all articles in journals specializing in telemedicine and indexed in MEDLINE. Non-peer-reviewed journals or those that were in print for less than five years were excluded. The two journals which met the inclusion criteria were the Journal of Telemedicine and Telecare (JTT) and the Telemedicine Journal and E-Health (TJE). For each article we examined the Medical Subject Heading (MeSH) terms, the country of the first author and the study type. In October 2004, there were 1321 articles listed: 993 in the JTT (75%) and 328 in the TJE (25%). The majority of papers were classified as general journal articles; the number classified as clinical trials was very low (4%). Based on the MeSH term, teleradiology was one of the most widely studied application areas (14%). The Internet was used in 137 publications (10%) as a MeSH term. Of all papers, 24% were from the USA, followed by 21% from the UK and 12% from Australia. However, 47 countries contributed the other one-third of papers (9% country unknown). The present study shows that publications in telemedicine cover a wide range, both geographically and in terms of clinical disciplines. This suggests that the field of telemedicine is maturing.