ReviewCureus2025
Ethical Challenges and Implications of Telemedicine Implementation in Saudi Primary Healthcare: A Narrative Review.
Review in Cureus, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
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
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Telemedicine has become a central component of Saudi Arabia's ongoing digital health transformation, offering new opportunities to enhance accessibility, efficiency, and patient-centered care. As virtual services expand, ethical considerations have grown increasingly important, particularly regarding informed consent, privacy and data security, professional boundaries, and equitable access for vulnerable populations. This narrative review synthesizes evidence from empirical studies, policy analyses, and ethical frameworks to examine the key ethical challenges associated with telemedicine in Saudi primary care. Findings highlight significant variations in digital literacy, persistent disparities among older adults and low-income groups, and increasing physician workload associated with virtual communication demands. Cultural norms surrounding family involvement further complicate consent and disclosure processes, underscoring the need for context-specific guidance. The review emphasizes that safe and equitable telemedicine implementation requires clear ethical protocols, culturally aligned decision-making practices, improved digital health infrastructure, and institutional support for clinicians. Strengthening governance, standardizing virtual care procedures, and integrating digital health equity principles are essential for sustaining high-quality telemedicine services. Overall, telemedicine holds substantial potential to advance healthcare delivery in Saudi Arabia, provided that ethical, cultural, and operational challenges are addressed through coordinated clinical and policy efforts.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What Socratic holds
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.