Telehealth assessments may be accurate for diagnosing all-cause dementia, although studies are limited

The available data suggest that telehealth assessment may be sensitive and specific for the diagnosis of all‐cause dementia when assessed against a reference standard of conventional face‐to‐face assessment. However, the estimates are very imprecise due to small sample sizes and between‐study heterogeneity, and may apply mainly to telehealth models that incorporate a considerable amount of face‐to‐face contact with healthcare professionals.

It is not possible to draw conclusions about the accuracy of diagnosis of dementia subtypes.

For the diagnosis of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) by telehealth assessment, best estimates of both sensitivity and specificity were somewhat lower than for all‐cause dementia but were based on a single study. Errors occurred at the healthy/ MCI and MCI/dementia boundaries. However, there is no evidence that diagnostic disagreements were more frequent than would be expected, due to the known imperfect inter‐rater reliability of the reference standard.