Distance is no longer a barrier to healthcare services: current state and future trends of telehealth research

Purpose: Taking a business lens of telehealth, this article aims to review and provide a state-of-the-art overview of telehealth research. Design/methodology/approach: This research conducts a systematic literature review using the scientific procedures and rationales for systematic literature reviews (SPAR-4-SLR) protocol and a collection of bibliometric analytical techniques (i.e. performance analysis, keyword co-occurrence, keyword clustering and content analysis). Findings: Using performance analysis, this article unpacks the publication trend and the top contributing journals, authors, institutions and regions of telehealth research. Using keyword co-occurrence and keyword clustering, this article reveals 10 major themes underpinning the intellectual structure of telehealth research: design and development of personal health record systems, health information technology (HIT) for public health management, perceived service quality among mobile health (m-health) users, paradoxes of virtual care versus in-person visits, Internet of things (IoT) in healthcare, guidelines for e-health practices and services, telemonitoring of life-threatening diseases, change management strategy for telehealth adoption, knowledge management of innovations in telehealth and technology management of telemedicine services. The article proposes directions for future research that can enrich our understanding of telehealth services. Originality/value: This article offers a seminal state-of-the-art overview of the performance and intellectual structure of telehealth research from a business perspective.