JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

With advancements in computer and communication technologies and specialized medical expertise, geographical barriers have been solved. Telemedicine, which offers remote emergency services, healthcare, and medication guidance, is gaining popularity. Restrictions on movement imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic since 2020 amplified the importance of telemedicine, which attracted global attention as it could bridge distances.

Objective:

This study aim is to assess China's research potential in telemedicine, identify potential collaborative countries in china, reveal China's shortcomings in telemedicine, and analyze global research trends and research hotspots in the field of telemedicine to provide references for future research directions.

Methods:

We conducted bibliometrics analysis while adopting the approach of network analysis to analyze relevant documents in the Web of Science database from 2001–2022. Considering COVID-19’s impact, 2020 was used as a baseline, and data were divided into two periods: 2001–2019 and 2020–2022. First, the development potential of telemedicine research was determined based on an analysis of the trend of publications per year and number of publications. Second, we constructed an internal co-authorship network and scatter plotted the degree and betweenness centrality, analyzed the status and important international collaboration in telemedicine research, and identified potential collaborations. Lastly, we have conducted co-occurrence analysis on China and the world.

Results:

We identified 25,333 telemedicine-related research papers published between 2001–2022. The number of publications in telemedicine research in China significantly increased over time, especially after 2020. Simultaneously, China’s global ranking in telemedicine research publications also increased. The United States, the United Kingdom, Australia were the main contributors to the literature (15,951/25,333, 62.96%), and were far ahead of China (989/25,333, 3.90%) and other countries. From a global perspective, the number of telemedicine-related research papers is on the rise, with the number of papers published since 2020 growing rapidly. Between 2001 and 2019, the United States and Australia were at the center of co-author networks, emphasizing their critical role in telemedicine research collaboration. Between 2020 and 2022, the United States will remain the largest node. The hubs of the network are the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada. Analysis of keyword co-occurrence and explosion found that there were five clusters around the world from 2001 to 2019, including: system technology, healthcare applications, mobile health, mental health, and electronic health. From 2020 to 2020, five clusters were identified globally, including: COVID-19, children's mental health, artificial intelligence, digital health, and rehabilitation of middle-aged and elderly people. From a Chinese perspective, the number of telemedicine-related research papers is consistent with global trends and has also grown rapidly since 2020. From 2001 to 2019, China maintained close cooperative relations with Indonesia, India, Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea. During this period, China's main partners were its geographically similar Asian neighbors. From 2020 to 2022, China has maintained close cooperation with Asian countries including Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, and South Korea. Cooperation is also increasing between China, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, South Africa, Ghana, Lebanon, and other African and Middle Eastern countries. An analysis of the co-occurrence of Chinese keywords found that from 2001 to 2019, the keywords studied in China were mainly system technology, healthcare applications, mobile health, big data analysis and electronic health. From 2020 to 2020, the keywords studied in China are mainly COVID-19, artificial intelligence, digital health, and mental health. Although research in psychology has increased, research in children's mental health and rehabilitation in middle-aged and older adults has not.

Conclusions:

We identified the latest trends in telemedicine research. Demonstrated that it had considerable potential in China and provided directions for future development. Simultaneously, reference value for China’s future telemedicine research collaboratives and fields were provided.