SynthesisThe Lancet. Digital health2022
Effectiveness and safety of pulse oximetry in remote patient monitoring of patients with COVID-19: a systematic review.
Synthesis in The Lancet. Digital health, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 60 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
60 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 109 citations in OpenAlex.
- Differentiating the start of an exacerbation from day-to-day variation in people with COPD: a systematic review.European respiratory review : an official journal of the European Respiratory Society · 2026Pooled it
- Transition of care interventions to manage severe COVID-19 in the ambulatory setting: a systematic review.Internal and emergency medicine · 2024Pooled it
- Facilitators of and Barriers to Accessing Hospital Medical Specialty Telemedicine Consultations During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Systematic Review.Journal of medical Internet research · 2023Pooled it
- By the book or beyond? Lessons on implementation fidelity in remote patient monitoring within a hybrid hospital-at-home feasibility study.BMJ health & care informatics · 2026Trial
- Transforming health care: Investigating Influenzer, a novel telemedicine-supported early discharge program for patients with lower respiratory tract infection: A non-randomized feasibility study.Journal of telemedicine and telecare · 2025Trial
- Evaluation of a Primary Care-Integrated Mobile Health Intervention to Monitor between-Visit Asthma Symptoms.Applied clinical informatics · 2024Trial
- Home-based management of hypoxaemic COVID-19 patients: design of the Therapy@Home pilot study.BMJ open · 2024Trial
- Patients' and GPs' views and expectations of home monitoring with a pulse oximeter: a mixed-methods process evaluation of a pilot randomised controlled trial.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2023Trial
- Home monitoring by pulse oximetry of primary care patients with COVID-19: a pilot randomised controlled trial.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2023Trial
- Remote Vital Sign Monitoring in Acutely Unwell Hospital at Home Patients: Nonrandomized Feasibility Study.JMIR formative research · 2026Article
- The Digital Evolution of the Medical Black Bag: Environmental Scan With Trend Analysis and Horizon Scanning.Journal of medical Internet research · 2026Article
- Acceptability and appropriateness of remote monitoring and self-administered pulse oximetry among COVID-19 patients in Honduras: a mixed-methods study.Primary health care research & development · 2026Article
- An Adjustable Smart Ring to Monitor Pulse Rate and Peripheral Blood Oxygen Saturation.Annals of biomedical engineering · 2026Article
- The impact of skin tone on performance of pulse oximeters used by NHS England COVID Oximetry @home scheme: measurement and diagnostic accuracy study.BMJ (Clinical research ed.) · 2026Observational
- Improving fidelity of implementation of self-administered pulse oximetry and remote patient monitoring in Honduras during the COVID-19 pandemic.Frontiers in medicine · 2026Article
- Remote Therapeutic Monitoring in Musculoskeletal Pain Medicine: A Systematic Review and Comparison with Remote Physiologic Monitoring.Journal of pain research · 2026Review
- Diagnostic accuracy of an over-the-counter infant pulse oximeter for cardiorespiratory events.Archives of disease in childhood. Fetal and neonatal edition · 2025Observational
- Transforming surgical care: The launch of the UK's first surgical virtual ward for acute and elective patients.Surgical endoscopy · 2025Article
- Artificial Intelligence in the Management of Infectious Diseases in Older Adults: Diagnostic, Prognostic, and Therapeutic Applications.Biomedicines · 2025Review
- Beyond the emergency department: the use of mobile health discharge interventions-a scoping review.CJEM · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has led health systems to increase the use of tools for monitoring and triaging patients remotely. In this systematic review, we aim to assess the effectiveness and safety of pulse oximetry in remote patient monitoring (RPM) of patients at home with COVID-19. We searched five databases (MEDLINE, Embase, Global Health, medRxiv, and bioRxiv) from database inception to April 15, 2021, and included feasibility studies, clinical trials, and observational studies, including preprints. We found 561 studies, of which 13 were included in our narrative synthesis. These 13 studies were all observational cohorts and involved a total of 2908 participants. A meta-analysis was not feasible owing to the heterogeneity of the outcomes reported in the included studies. Our systematic review substantiates the safety and potential of pulse oximetry for monitoring patients at home with COVID-19, identifying the risk of deterioration and the need for advanced care. The use of pulse oximetry can potentially save hospital resources for patients who might benefit the most from care escalation; however, we could not identify explicit evidence for the effect of RPM with pulse oximetry on health outcomes compared with other monitoring models such as virtual wards, regular monitoring consultations, and online or paper diaries to monitor changes in symptoms and vital signs. Based on our findings, we make 11 recommendations across the three Donabedian model domains and highlight three specific measurements for setting up an RPM system with pulse oximetry.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.