Patient’s Role in Telemedicine: from Compliance to Engagement in Scientific Research Perspectives

Background: Telemedicine services are progressively assuming a central role in health management and healthcare delivery. Due to the peculiarities of technological systems, the patient's role is becoming increasingly relevant in the healthcare system. Despite active patient participation being a long-standing focus in scientific literature, there is still no shared agreement on its definition. This study aims to observe how this concept is studied and to identify differences between the field of psychology and other scientific areas. Methods: Employing Bibliometrix software in the R environment, a bibliometric analysis quantitatively assessed scientific outputs productivity using Web of Science (WoS). A Total of 9763 documents were analysed (552 documents from the psychological field; 9211 documents from other scientific areas) published from 1990 to 2023 with the aim of systematically analysing the use of terms related to patient involvement in telemedicine services (e.g., empowerment, activation, engagement, adherence, and compliance). A distinction was made between the psychology field and all other areas in WoS (e.g., economics, medicine, computer science) to compare the usage, frequencies, and evolution of terms over time. Findings: The terms used to describe the patient-centered approach are currently heterogeneous in both the psychological and other scientific areas. However, in psychology, the term "engagement" is more commonly used, while in other research areas, "adherence" persists as the predominant construct over time. Discussion: Although not yet widely adopted in conventional scientific language, the patient engagement paradigm is emerging in psychological research, emphasizing the importance of the patient's active participation in their healthcare journey.