Table 2 Inclusion and exclusion criteria used in systematic reviews

Demiris, G., Speedie, S. M., & Hicks, L. L. (2004). Assessment of patients' acceptance of and satisfaction with teledermatology. Journal of medical systems, 28(6), 575-579.

1966 to 2003

1) Embase

2) Medline

3) Science Citation Index

4) Telemedicine Information Exchange

1) Studies published in English

2) Studies that used quantitative and/or qualitative methods to investigate patient satisfaction with teledermatology applications in a prospective or retrospective manner

1) Reviews and concept papers

Eminović, N., De Keizer, N. F., Bindels, P. J. E., & Hasman, A. (2007). Maturity of teledermatology evaluation research: a systematic literature review. British Journal of Dermatology, 156(3), 412-419.

1966 to 2006

1) Medline

1) Studies published in English

2) Original full papers reporting on the evaluation of a specific teledermatology service

3) Papers on a telemedicine application for several specialties (i.e. only if the results on dermatology were separately reported)

1) Literature reviews, comments, abstracts, letters, and editorials

2) Papers not about dermatology but about another specialty (e.g. radiology, pathology)

3) Papers where the evaluation of a specific teledermatology service was not the primary aim

4) Papers from conference proceedings were excluded if a full journal paper on the same study was obtained in the selection procedure

van der Heijden, J. P., Spuls, P. I., Voorbraak, F. P., de Keizer, N. F., Witkamp, L., & Bos, J. D. (2010). Tertiary teledermatology: a systematic review. Telemedicine and e-health, 16(1), 56-62.

No limit reported

1) Cochrane Library

2) Medline3) Scopus

1) All articles on tertiary teledermatology, including original research, comments, letters, and editorials.

2) No language restrictions

3) During the title scan, references were included if one of the words ‘‘teledermatology,’’ ‘‘dermatol*,’’ or ‘‘skin*’’ was found in the title. References with the word ‘‘telemedicine’’ in the title were only included if no specialty (other than dermatology) was mentioned in the title.4) References without an abstract in the database were subject to a second title scan, where references were only included if the title included the word ‘‘teledermatology’’

5) During the full text screening, references were included if the main subject of the article was the use of teledermatology between dermatologists, or a dermatology resident and a specialized dermatologist.

1) Conference proceedings and errata

2) During the full text screening, references were excluded if the referrer was a primary care physician or specialist other than a dermatologist, the article was excluded

Warshaw, E. M., Hillman, Y. J., Greer, N. L., Hagel, E. M., MacDonald, R., Rutks, I. R., & Wilt, T. J. (2011). Teledermatology for diagnosis and management of skin conditions: a systematic review. Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, 64(4), 759-772.

1990 to 2009

1) Medline

2) PubMed

1) Clinical trials, systematic reviews, cost studies, and implementation papers involving human participants

2) Controlled trial studies3) Store and forward or live interactive teledermatology studies

4) Clinical trials of teledermatology with a clinic dermatology control group (in-person examination) if they provided information related to diagnostic and management accuracy or concordance as defined by the authors

5) Teledermatology studies without control groups that compare clinical outcomes (i.e. clinical course, satisfaction, quality of life, visits avoided) with clinic dermatology

6) Teledermatology studies without control groups that compare the cost with clinic dermatology

1) Teledermatology involving mobile telephones.

2) Nonteledermatology settings (e.g., imaging analyses, telemedicine studies other than teledermatology, videomicroscopy studies, basic science, imaging techniques)

3) Dermatopathology studies

4) Reviews, teledermatology program descriptions, and historical summaries of teledermatology (unless relevant to questions 3 or 4)

5) Studies of computer-aided diagnoses only (e.g., computerized pattern recognition for pigmented lesions)

6) Survey studies addressing outcomes other than those defined research questions

7) Teledermatology as an educational tool for primary care physicians or residents

8) Technology assessment only

9) Remote monitoring of known diagnoses (e.g., leg ulcers, postoperative wounds)

10) Teledermatology involving patient-generated photographs, history, or both (without a referring provider)

11) Non-English language

12) Case series with no control group (questions 1 and 2 only)

13) Commentaries, editorials, or meeting abstracts

14) Studies involving only one or two diagnoses (of, leprosy, acne, warts); studies of one category of skin conditions (e.g., pigmented lesions that could have multiple diagnoses) were included

15) Duplicate publications; if both preliminary and final reports were published, final datawere used

Wallace, D. L., Hussain, A., Khan, N., & Wilson, Y. T. (2012). A systematic review of the evidence for telemedicine in burn care: with a UK perspective. Burns, 38(4), 465-480.

1966 to 2010

1) Arts and Humanities Citation Index

2) CINAHL

3) Cochrane Controlled Trials Register

4) EMBASE

5) Medline

6) Science Citation Index

7) Social Sciences Citation Index

8) Telemedicine Information Exchange databases

1) Studies published in peer-reviewed journals about burn injury care with an application that involved the transfer of visual images

2) No language restrictions

1) Studies not published in peer-reviewed journals or given as presentations2) Studies about technical comments relating to information technology for burn injury assessment without involving direct clinical care

Snoswell, C., Finnane, A., Janda, M., Soyer, H. P., & Whitty, J. A. (2016). Cost-effectiveness of store-and-forward teledermatology: a systematic review. JAMA Dermatology, 152(6), 702-708.

No limit reported

1) CINAHL

2) Cochrane

3) EconLit

4) EMBASE

5) Google Scholar6) Medline

7) PubMed

1) Studies related to any population requiring dermatological care

2) Studies that include store-and-forward teledermatology intervention, regardless of the device or individual used to capture the images

3) Studies that compared the intervention with conventional face-to-face consultation

4) Studies which had outcomes expressed in terms of any kind of economic analysis

5) Only full-text journal articles available in English were included

None stated