ORIGINAL RESEARCH

Impact of COVID-19 on Primary Healthcare Research: Trends and Suggestions for Better Services Approaches Via Blockchain Based Applications

Muhammet Damar, PhD1,2symbol; Andrew David Pinto, MD MSc2,3,4,5symbol; Fatih Safa Erenay, PhD6symbol and Omer Aydin, PhD6,7symbol

1Computer Science Department, Faculty of Science, Dokuz Eylul University, Alsancak, İzmir, Turkiye; 2Upstream Lab, MAP, Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute, Unity Health Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; 3Department of Family and Community Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; 4Department of Family and Community Medicine, St. Michael’s Hospital, Unity Health Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; 5Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; 6Management Science and Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada; 7Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, ManisaCelal Bayar, University, Manisa, Turkiye

Keywords: Bibliometric analysis, blockchain, COVID-19, coronavirus, pandemic, primary healthcare, topic modeling

Abstract

Objective: The authors assessed how research in primary healthcare was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and identified the potential of blockchain technology to address pandemic-related challenges.

Methods: This quantitative bibliometric research study used machine learning techniques. A comprehensive analysis of all primary healthcare (PHC) research was conducted using bibliometric data from the WOs. We examined co-authorship, co-occurrences, citation and co-citation, thematic mapping, factorial, document, and Latent Dirichlet Allocationtopic analyses. Our main dataset was 1,885 articles produced by 9,185 researchers from 3,132 institutions in 113 countries.

Results: The most cited studies in the PHC field during the pandemic related to telemedicine and remote consultation, along with clinical conditions such as mental health, diabetes, vaccinations, risks during pregnancy, and healthcare of the elderly. In addition, the impact of COVID-19 on educational outcomes, changes to the organization of care, experiences and challenges to PHC physicians and other health professionals, and the diversity of COVID-19 symptoms were prominent.

Conclusions: The PHC researchers adapted quickly to the pandemic and conducted multidisciplinary research that helped to mitigate the impact on individuals, health systems, and society. Within this context, blockchain technology can be used to facilitate the security of health data, resource management (e.g., monitoring of the vaccine supply chain), and global collaboration toward pandemic control. By providing transparency, security, and efficiency in these areas, blockchain technology might lead to more effective pandemic preparedness and management in the future.

Plain Language Summary

The authors assessed how research in primary healthcare was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and identified the potential for blockchain technology to address pandemic-related challenges. The main dataset included 1,885 articles produced by 9,185 researchers from 3,132 institutions in 113 countries. The PHC researchers adapted quickly to the pandemic and conducted multidisciplinary research that helped to mitigate the impact on individuals, health systems, and society. The results reveal that blockchain technology can facilitate the security of health data, resource management (e.g., monitoring of the vaccine supply chain), and global collaboration toward pandemic control. By providing transparency, security, and efficiency in these areas, blockchain technology may lead to more effective pandemic preparedness and management in the future.

 

Citation: Blockchain in Healthcare Today 2025, 8: 400.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.30953/bhty.v8.400

Copyright: © 2025 This is an open-access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, adapt, enhance this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0.
The authors of this article own the copyright.

Received: April 28, 2025; Accepted: June 4, 2025; Published: August 1, 2025

Corresponding Author: Omer Aydin, Email: omer.aydin@cbu.edu.tr

Competing interests and funding: None
Associate Professor Muhammet Damar, PhD and Associate Professor Omer Aydin, PhD were funded by the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Türkiye (TUBITAK) under the 2219 International Postdoctoral Research Fellowship Program for Turkish Citizens.

 

The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in over seven million deaths and profoundly affected health systems globally.1–3 Primary healthcare (PHC) practitioners played an important role in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. As the initial point of contact and the ‘front door’ to the healthcare system,4,5 PHC providers supported key aspects of the pandemic response, including testing, vaccination, treatment of SARS-CoV-2, communication to the public, and adapting to maintain care for other acute illnesses and chronic diseases.6–8

Bibliometric analysis methods are important tools for reviewing developments or prominent debates in a specific field over time.9,10 Several bibliometric studies were conducted in the PHC literature.11–14 Exploring the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on PHC research through a comprehensive bibliometric evaluation may provide insights to be better prepared for future pandemics.

No previous study provides a comprehensive evaluation of the global impact of COVID-19 on PHC literature. Using bibliometric tools, our objective was to provide a comprehensive evaluation of how COVID-19 changes the PHC research landscape. We sought to identify answers to the following issues. How has the COVID-19 pandemic affected the PHC literature? What are the most highly cited COVID-19 articles in PHC? Which researchers, institutions, and in what countries conducted the most intensive research on COVID-19 in PHC. In addition, we sought to identify how blockchain technology might be used more efficiently during similar outbreaks in the future with.

Methodology

Data on articles published between January 1, 2020 and February 2, 2024, were obtained from nine different queries through the Web of Science (WoS) Core Collection (Appendix A). Bibliometric data were first obtained as Excel files and plain text, and we used VOS viewer and the Biblioshiny application in the Bibliometrix R Package.

In our analyses, we focused on research articles and reviews as the information carried by these document types is more comprehensive and relevant to the research field. Several types of content analyses were conducted to capture and reveal the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on PHC research. The set of conducted content analysis and associated methods includes co-authorship analysis,15,16 co-occurrence analysis (network, overlay, and density analysis),16,17 citation and co-citation analysis,18,19 thematic map analysis, thematic evaluation analysis, and factorial analysis (word map, words by cluster, and topic dendrogram),19,20 document analysis (most frequent words, word cloud, treemap, word dynamics, trend topics),19,20 and Latent Dirichlet Allocation.21,22 The search sites used to retrieve the data for analysis from the WoS Core Collection, the research methodology, and other details are provided in Appendix A.

Topic modeling is one of the most powerful techniques for data/text mining and hidden data discovery to identify relationships between data and text documents. Among the various methods of topic modeling, Latent Dirichlet Allocation is one of the most popular.23

Results

General View of Covid-19 Literature in Primary Healthcare Research Area

The COVID-19 pandemic was first reflected in the PHC literature in 2020. Our bibliometric analysis accessed a total of 2,606 publications of 12 different types. The PHC research area, which has had critical importance during the pandemic outbreak period, ranked 74th among WoS research areas with 2,606 documents. We limited our main dataset to 1,885 publications by considering only research articles and reviews. Appendix B illustrates the distribution of publications according to relevant fields (COVID-19 or PHC), publication years, publication types, and research areas.

The top five WoS research areas where COVID-19 studies were conducted include general internal medicine (f:50,613, 9.72%), public environmental occupational health (f:50,162, 9.63%), immunology (f:23,126, 4.44%), infectious diseases (f:22,779, 4.37%), and multidisciplinary sciences (f:19,831, 3.81%). Interestingly, the vast majority of the relevant publications (f:1,779 out of 1,885, %94.4%) were open-access.

Authors, Institutions, and Countries

The relevant articles in the main database (f:1,885) were written by 9,185 researchers from 3,132 different institutions located in 113 different countries. The top 30 countries, the top 20 institutions, and the top 20 authors showing the most intense interest in COVID-19 topics within the PHC literature are listed in Appendices C, D, and E, respectively. The threefield-plot (journals, authors, and keyword plus) analysis in Appendix E shows the journals and subject headings of the researchers’ publications in general.

Considering the publications in journals in the Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI) and Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-Expanded), the University of Oxford (f:40, 5.42%), University of Toronto (f:34, 4.61%), University of London (f:33, 4.47%) stand out and make significant contributions to the field.

References, Most Cited Documents and Sources

The COVID-19 articles in the field of PHC were published in 29 different journals (see Appendix F). The most cited articles are shown in Appendix G. The 1,885 relevant articles cited 4,449 different sources (journals, theses, books, etc.) and 42,295 references. The co-citation source analysis shows the network analysis of 374 sources according to the minimum 20 works, the eight clusters with which the journals are associated, and the density map of the journals (Figure 1).

Fig 1
Fig. 1. Co-citation sources analyses for COVID-19 studies in PHC research area. PHC: primary healthcare.

The most cited study in the main database evaluates the impact of COVID-19 on loneliness, mental health, and health service utilization with a cause-and-effect relationship for older adults.24 That study revealed that older patients with multimorbidity in primary care experienced worse psychosocial health and an increase in missed scheduled medical appointments for chronic disease care after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The top cited studies in the PHC field during the relevant period considered prominent issues related to telemedicine,3,25 remote consultation,26,27 mental health,24,28,29 diabetes,30 anxiety,28,31 vaccination,32,33 risks for pregnant and elderly people,28,34 the impact of COVID-19 on education,35 organizational problems in PHC,36,37,38 PHC physicians’ and health professionals’ experiences and problems,4,25,39,40 COVID-19 symptoms,41,42 migrants,43 refugees,44 COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy.45

Themes of the Relevant Studies Based on Keywords, Titles, Abstracts, and Research Areas Perspectives

The results of the co-occurrence analysis for researcher keywords are shown in Figure 2. Note that the keywords equivalent to COVID-19 in PHC and primary care were excluded from the analysis for clarity. In Figure 3, the size of each word is proportional to the usage frequency of that word. The words belonging to the same clusters have the same color in Figures 2a and c, while the thickness of the links between words highlights co-occurrence frequency, which implies the existence and magnitude of relationships between the keywords. In Figure 2b, from dark blue to red, the topics that were intensively studied between 2020 and 2024 are shown. Furthermore, Figure 2d shows the thematic evolution performed on the researchers’ keywords.

Fig 2
Fig. 2. Co-occurrence analyses for COVID-19 studies keywords in PHC research area. PHC: primary healthcare

Fig 3
Fig. 3. Latent Dirichlet Allocation topic modeling analysis (Fields: Abstracts and Titles).

In Figure 2a and c the words belonging to the same clusters share the same color, while in Figure 2d, the thickness of the links between words highlights co-occurrence frequency, which implies the existence and magnitude of relationships between the keywords. In addition, Figure 2d shows the thematic evolution performed on the researchers’ keywords. Note that the keywords equivalent to COVID-19 in PHC and primary care were excluded from the analysis for clarity. (a) Network Analyses, (b) Overlay Analyses, (c) Density Analyses, and (d) Thematic Evolution. PHC: primary healthcare.

We also analyzed the relevant articles on COVID-19 in PHC literature using Latent Dirichlet Allocation topic modeling to summarize and extract article themes. These distinct themes obtained from this analysis are depicted on six different word clouds in Figure 3a–f.

Based on a topic dendrogram analysis performed on the abstracts of the articles to the main research areas, COVID-19 articles in PHC literature focus on eight main research areas (See Appendix H, Appendix I and Appendix J). The related fields are general internal medicine (Appendix Ha), endocrinology metabolism (Appendix Hb), healthcare sciences services (Appendix Ic), health policy services (Appendix Id), public environmental occupational health (Appendix Id), orthopedics (Appendix Je), sport sciences (Appendix Jf), respiratory system (Appendix Jf). COVID-19 articles in health policy services are also associated with the public environmental occupational health field (Appendix Id), and COVID-19 articles in orthopedics are also associated with the sports sciences field (Appendix Je).

Discussion and Conclusion

During the pandemic and during the following years, COVID-19-related issues have drawn significant interest in the PHC literature, for example, nearly one out of every five PHC studies published between 2021 and 2023 were related to COVID-19. This study offers a comprehensive bibliometric assessment of articles using machine learning techniques on COVID-19 in the PHC research field, providing insights into the pandemic’s impact on PHC research from a holistic perspective.

Upon review of the literature, this study represents the most comprehensive investigation into the impact of the pandemic on PHC literature. In addition, the pandemic was beyond a regular health problem or disease. Thus, its multidimensional impact has been studied by experts from different fields.46–48 However, existing studies have reviewed PHC research related to COVID-19 within specific subareas of the field.28,29,33,49

Our bibliometric analyses revealed that such large-scale pandemics affect a vast variety of subareas within the PHC field as well as other fields of medicine. Therefore, multidisciplinary approaches are often necessary for effective problem-solving for the control and management of such large-scale pandemics.

Comorbidity, multimorbidity, stress, telemedicine, remote consultation, mental health, diabetes, anxiety, vaccination, risks for pregnant and elderly, vulnerable population, impact of COVID-19 on education, organizational problems in PHC, experiences and problems of PHC physicians and health workers, COVID-19 symptoms, migrants, refugees, COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy, and disease management were the other intensively studied topics worth mentioning. For instance, care for patients with multimorbidity emerged as an intensely questioned issue for PHC services during the COVID-19 pandemic given their vulnerability against COVID-19.6,7 In addition, as the pandemic progressed, vulnerable groups were more susceptible to COVID-19 infection and had worse health outcomes compared to others.6

Refugees, migrants, the homeless population, children, pregnant women, elderly people, veterans, people with chronic diseases (e.g., diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular problems, neurological diseases, chronic respiratory diseases), and rural populations are other outstanding keywords for vulnerable populations. Keeping an up-to-date database for patients with multimorbidity and vulnerable patients is vital to be better prepared for such pandemics in the future and minimize the adverse outcomes among these individuals.

In our study, stress and anxiety emerged as very intensively studied topics in the PHC field. This situation is reasonable considering the burden of the pandemic.24 Mental health, anxiety, depression, stress, and burnout were among the keywords and themes captured by our topic modeling applications. These topics were discussed in the context of problems faced by doctors, nurses, and other health professionals, as well as by patients and medical students. Quality of life, health equity, health service accessibility, social determinants of health, and gender differences were other topics discussed in relation to PHC services. These topics were discussed in the PHC literature in conjecture with disease management, triage, risk factors, and health management.50–53

The most important COVID-19 measures for mitigating the pandemic propagation were social distancing3 and the use of masks, herd immunity, personnel protective equipment, quarantine, and the management and coordination of the outbreak in PHC services.54 In addition to these, telemedicine digital technology has been a relevant and necessary technology for the COVID-19 pandemic process.55,56 Telemedicine has supported the delivery of health services when severe social-distancing and isolation measures were in place, especially for public health, disease prevention, and clinical practices.3,25 Telemedicine was the most intensively studied useful technology in our study. A properly implemented telemedicine service can integrate with health services.56

Nurses and other allied health professionals performing important tasks on the frontline are affected as much as family doctors, physicians, or medical students globally38,40,57–59 and the technology developed must be planned with the needs of all health stakeholders in mind. Therefore, being a useful technology, especially considering the importance of social distance in the way the virus is transmitted, it has been used in the pandemic process as a critical technology for diagnosis, treatment, and monitoring, and even for the training of doctors and doctor candidates.26 This has also significantly impacted the educational processes of these professions.60,61 Therefore, it can be suggested that education processes should be ready for such outbreaks. In general, patients have reported high satisfaction with telehealth in general practice during quarantine, and integrating telemedicine into the healthcare system as a natural component is considered beneficial for being better prepared for future pandemics.62

Strengths and Limitations of Our Study

It can be said that the dataset analyzes publications in journals indexed by WoS, but most of the relevant journals with PHC are also indexed by Scopus.63 In addition, many analyses were performed on the data obtained, and only part of them are presented here due to limitations in the number of figures, tables, and text. Additional findings are presented as Appendices, as they may be useful for researchers and strengthen the article.

Future Studies

For future studies it might be useful to discuss PHC and the pandemic process with computer science, artificial intelligence, information systems, interdisciplinary applications, software engineering, medical informatics, robotics, respiratory systems, public administration, psychology, social, psychiatry, and economics. This contribution stems from the critical value and importance of the PHC field in COVID-19-like outbreaks. Experiences gained from pandemics should not be lost, lessons should be learned and used to create new approaches for PHC in the future. Singapore is a successful example.64 Contemporary technologies such as the metaverse play a significant role in the healthcare field.65 During the COVID-19 pandemic, PHC services have been virtualized, and the use of virtual technologies has become widespread.66 In particular, virtual visits in Canada are considered an alternative healthcare service for those with chronic illnesses.67 For future pandemics, it is necessary to thoroughly investigate virtual healthcare services and reorganize PHC to incorporate remote technologies.

Given the likelihood of encountering similar epidemics in the future due to global climate change, population growth, and deteriorating living conditions, the study emphasizes the importance of distance services (telehealth, distance education, remote consultation, etc.) in connecting patients, healthcare providers, and health services remotely during epidemic periods. It recommends that policymakers and governments integrate relevant systems into national health frameworks, prioritizing epidemic preparedness for future outbreaks and addressing integration-related challenges promptly.

Many countries faced challenges in accessing protective equipment, masks, and respiratory systems crucial for pandemic control. To prevent similar issues in future outbreaks, the results published here advise countries to develop strategic pandemic plans urgently and ensure sufficient stock and distribution of pandemic-fighting materials during COVID-19-like crises. It also underscores the importance of prioritizing PHC, particularly in densely populated countries such as India, Indonesia, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. Developing nations must utilize their limited resources more effectively, with PHC offering significant potential in reducing health inequalities and providing critical health services during pandemics. For these countries, investing in PHC services is deemed essential and strategic to ensure more equitable access to healthcare services for citizens.

What Blockchain Technology Can Provide for Future Pandemics

The COVID-19 is transmitted to humans through zoonosis, which can occur again in the future.68 Therefore, the global community should invest in potential technologies that can be helpful for future pandemics. Blockchain is among such a critical technology and its applications such as Hashlog, VeChain, the Public Health Blockchain Consortium (PHBC) platform, and Hyperchain have been used during COVID-19 pandemic for various purposes.69

Blockchain is a technology that attracts attention with its decentralized, transparent, secure, and immutable data storage and transaction features.70 These features can facilitate pandemic control through early detection of outbreaks, accelerating drug delivery, and protecting user privacy during treatment.69 During pandemics, rapid access to accurate and reliable health data is vital. Blockchain technology provides real-time information to all strategic partners and traceability in the disease control process, which can ensure secure and transparent management of health data.71 The blockchain technology can be used to globally track the spread of coronavirus infections by placing a blockchain network on citizens’ mobile devices.69 It also facilitates the use of international vaccination certificates and health status monitoring.72

The transparent structure of blockchain enables tracking of how health data are used at each step of care delivery. For example, during pandemics, efficient and proper production, transportation, and distribution of vaccines, therapeutic drugs, masks, and hygiene products is critical to combat the pandemic. Various significant problems have been experienced in these processes during the COVID-19 pandemic.73–76 With blockchain technology, the vaccine and drug production processes can be made transparent and secure and the processes can be monitored in real-time. In this way, definitive traceability of transported and stored vaccines and drugs can be achieved. This could also reduce the risk of counterfeiting in vaccines and other protective products. Sharing of research and development data during the pandemic has also been critical in the drug development process and early pandemic response.77 In vaccine development processes, sharing data from different research organizations on the blockchain can enable faster research progress as a part of their pandemic preparedness plans.

During future pandemics, citizens do not only need to be provided with the right medicine or equipment but also with the most accurate information. During the COVID-19 process, many problems have been experienced in social media and other platforms, rendering access to accurate information.78 The most appropriate way to combat this is to share information with citizens through social media communication channels where content can be monitored.

Khurshid79 suggested a nationally coordinated partnership (consisting of academia, researchers, the business world, and industry) to accelerate the adoption of blockchain and their national/international use in accurately disseminating information, which can prevent disinformation and manipulation, especially in social media. On a global scale, the need for pandemic research collaboration, and thus, secure data-sharing channels is even greater. Global collaboration efforts require quick and secure transfer of large-scale data between different countries, organizations, and health authorities. At this point, blockchain technology is a real, applicable, and secure technology. Therefore, it would be appropriate to carry out such processes and initiatives through and under the leadership of the World Health Organization.

Contributors

Muhammet Damar: Conceptualization, methodology, software, validation, formal analysis, data curation, writing—original draft, writing—review and editing, visualization.

Andrew David Pinto: Conceptualization, validation, investigation, writing—review and editing, supervision.

Fatih Safa Erenay: Conceptualization, investigation, writing—review and editing, supervision.

Ömer Aydın: Conceptualization, writing—review and editing, supervision.

Data Availability Statement (DAS), Data Sharing, Reproducibility, and Data Repositories

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request. Also, we retrieve our bibliometric data from WoS Core Collection Database and this database is open for everyone.

Application of AI-Generated Text or Related Technology

No AI tools were used for content creation in this manuscript (e.g., drafting, rewriting, or generating ideas).

Acknowledgments

Associate Professor Muhammet Damar and Associate Professor Omer Aydin would like to thank the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Türkiye (TUBITAK) for their support. Associate Professor Muhammet Damar would like to thank the Upstream Lab, MAP, Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute at the University of Toronto for its excellent hospitality.

The study was conducted by UpStream Lab project team members to evaluate the reflections of the COVID-19 pandemic in primary healthcare literature. The Lab has a project evaluating the inequity created within the health system during the pandemic in Canada. The research was carried out as a supportive but independent project from this project.

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Fig 4
Appendix A. Research methodology and study descriptions. PHCA; primary health care

Fig 5
Appendix B. Three fields plot with authors, journals, and keywords for COVID-19 studies in PHC research area. (AU: author, DE: author keyword, PHC: primary healthcare, SO: Source/Journal/Conference)

Appendix C. Top 30 countries where studies of COVID-19 were at PHC research areas. (ACPA: Avarage Citation Per Article HI: H-Index PHC: primary healthcare, TC: Total Cited)
# Countries TC HI ACPA n %
1 India 1,592 17 2.91 547 29.01
2 USA 2,756 21 6.75 408 21.64
3 England 1,765 20 10.09 175 9.28
4 Spain 703 12 5.49 128 6.79
5 Canada 399 10 4.75 84 4.45
6 Australia 540 9 6.84 79 4.19
7 Saudi Arabia 178 7 2.70 66 3.50
8 South Africa 510 11 8.95 57 3.02
9 Iran 224 8 4.48 50 2.65
10 Germany 430 11 9.15 47 2.49
11 Turkiye 299 10 8.54 35 1.85
12 Netherlands 486 9 13.89 35 1.85
13 New Zealand 270 6 8.71 31 1.64
14 Belgium 237 6 8.78 27 1.43
15 France 146 6 5.41 27 1.43
16 Scotland 346 8 13.31 26 1.37
17 China 419 8 17.46 24 1.27
18 Egypt 82 5 3.73 22 1.16
19 Poland 142 6 6.45 22 1.16
20 Sweden 134 5 6.09 22 1.16
21 Ireland 157 5 7.48 21 1.11
22 Japan 33 3 1.65 20 1.06
23 Denmark 56 4 2.95 19 1.00
24 Italy 115 6 6.05 19 1.00
25 Norway 47 4 2.76 17 0.90
26 Israel 130 7 8.13 16 0.84
27 Indonesia 55 4 3.67 15 0.79
28 Pakistan 127 6 9.07 14 0.74
29 Switzerland 113 6 8.07 14 0.74
30 Wales 106 5 7.57 14 0.74

Country collaborations (co-authorship country analyses)

Fig 9

Appendix D. Top 20 institutes where COVID-19 was studied at PHC research areas. PHC: primary healthcare
Rank Institutes Country HI TC ACPA n %
1 University of London England 13 407 8.48 48 2.54
2 University of Oxford England 13 635 13.51 47 2.49
3 All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) New Delhi India 8 162 3.95 41 2.17
4 University of Toronto Canada 8 287 7.18 40 2.12
5 All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Rishikesh India 8 130 3.94 33 1.75
6 University of California System USA 7 241 8.31 29 1.53
7 Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education Research (PGIMER) Chandigarh India 6 136 4.86 28 1.48
8 University System of Ohio USA 6 119 4.25 28 1.48
9 All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Jodhpur India 6 119 4.76 25 1.32
10 Mayo Clinic USA 8 183 7.32 25 1.32
11 Government Medical College India 4 40 1.82 22 1.16
12 University of Colorado System USA 7 220 10.00 22 1.16
13 Egyptian Knowledge Bank Egypt 5 82 3.90 21 1.11
14 Imperial College London England 7 324 15.43 21 1.11
15 Headquarters of the Catalan Institute of Health Spain 7 309 14.71 21 1.11
16 All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Patna India 5 71 3.55 20 1.06
17 University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus USA 7 218 10.90 20 1.06
18 All India Institutes of Medical Sciences India 4 38 2.11 18 0.95
19 King’s College London England 8 216 12.00 18 0.95
20 All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Raipur India 5 48 2.82 17 0.90
21 State University System of Florida USA 6 112 6.59 17 0.90
22 Stellenbosch University South Africa 9 193 11.35 17 0.90
23 King George S Medical University India 4 68 4.25 16 0.84
24 University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) USA 6 194 12.13 16 0.84
25 Harvard University USA 6 134 8.93 15 0.79

Affiliations Collaborations (Co-Authorship Affiliations Analyses).

Fig 10

Appendix E. Top 20 authors who studied COVID-19 at PHC research areas F. PHC: primary healthcare
Rank Authors Country Institutions (From WoS Profile) TC ACPA n %
1 Kumar A India All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) New Delhi 82 2.93 28 1.48
2 Kumar R India Vardhman Mahavir Medical College & Safdarjung Hospital 110 4.07 27 1.43
3 Kumar S India All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) New Delhi 78 3.12 25 1.32
4 Singh S India Sharda University 73 3.32 22 1.16
5 Gupta A India Tufts University 43 3.31 13 0.69
6 Sharma A India Department of Dentistry | SHKM, Goverment Medical College 21 2.10 10 0.53
7 Sharma P India Faculty of Medicine, Uttar Pradesh University of Medical Sciences 34 3.40 10 0.53
8 Wig N India All India Institute of Medical Science 25 2.50 10 0.53
9 Butler CC England University of Oxford 100 11.11 9 0.47
10 Croghan IT USA Mayo Clinic 108 12.00 9 0.47
11 Garg S India Maulana Azad Medical College 19 2.11 9 0.47
12 Nugent K USA Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center 63 7.00 9 0.47
13 Sharma N India Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education & Research, Chandigarh 27 3.00 9 0.47
14 Singh A India KGMC Department of Physical Medicine Orthopaedic 17 1.89 9 0.47
15 Singh AK India All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) New Delhi 51 5.67 9 0.47
16 Goodyear-smith F New Zealand University of Auckland 81 10.13 9 0.47
17 Pal R India College of Nursing, AIIMS, Bhubaneswar 64 8 8 0.42
18 Serrano-cumplido A Spain Board of Retired Doctors 27 3.38 8 0.42
19 Singh P India The George Institute for Global Health 9 1.13 8 0.42
20 Westfall JM USA Robert Graham Center: Policy Studies in Family Medicine 71 8.88 8 0.42

Authors’ Collaborations (Co-Authorship Authors Analyses).

Fig 11

Appendix F. Journals that are published most often on COVID-19 at a PHC Research Area
Rank Journals Research domain 5YIF ESCI HI TC ACPA n %
1 Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care Primary Healthcare - Yes 14 1,557 2.46 634 33.63
2 Journal of Primary Care and Community Health Primary Healthcare - Yes 23 1,870 8.90 210 11.14
3 BMC Primary Care Primary Healthcare; Medicine, General & Internal - No 7 233 2.31 101 5.35
4 Journal of The American Board of Family Medicine Primary Healthcare; Medicine General & Internal 3.024 No 14 695 6.95 100 5.30
5 Family Practice Primary Healthcare; Medicine, General & Internal 2.652 No 10 469 7.22 65 3.44
6 African Journal of Primary Healthcare Family Medicine Primary Healthcare - Yes 10 424 6.84 62 3.28
7 BJGP Open Primary Healthcare - Yes 10 269 4.34 62 3.28
8 Primary Care Diabetes Endocrinology & Metabolism; Primary Healthcare 2.644 No 13 518 9.59 54 2.86
9 British Journal of General Practice Primary Healthcare Medicine, General & Internal 6.916 No 15 1,068 20.15 53 2.81
10 Medicina De Familia Semergen Primary Healthcare - Yes 7 154 2.91 53 2.81
11 Annals of Family Medicine Primary Healthcare; Medicine, General & Internal 6.697 No 11 454 9.27 49 2.59
12 Atencion Primaria Primary Healthcare; Medicine, General & Internal 1.982 No 9 346 7.36 47 2.49
13 BMC Family Practice Primary Healthcare; Medicine, General & Internal 3.301 No 15 818 20.45 40 2.12
14 Primary Healthcare Research and Development Primary Healthcare 1.947 No 6 121 303 40 2.12
15 Australian Journal of Primary Health Healthcare Sciences & Services; Health Policy & Services; Primary Healthcare; Public, Environmental & Occupational Health 1.764 No 4 112 3.20 35 1.85
16 Family Medicine Primary Healthcare; Medicine, General & Internal 1.957 No 5 78 2.23 35 1.85
17 Education for Primary Care Primary Healthcare - Yes 7 158 4.79 33 1.75
18 Family Medicine and Primary Care Review Primary Healthcare - Yes 3 51 1.59 32 1.69
19 European Journal of General Practice Primary Healthcare; Medicine, General & Internal 5.654 No 6 318 10.60 30 1.59
20 Family Medicine and Community Health Primary Healthcare - Yes 7 190 7.31 26 1.37
21 Journal of Primary Healthcare Primary Healthcare - Yes 4 71 2.96 24 1.27
22 Canadian Family Physician Primary Healthcare; Medicine, General & Internal 3.899 No 5 70 3.50 20 1.06
23 Physician and Sportsmedicine Primary Healthcare; Orthopedics; Sport Sciences 2.883 No 8 182 9.58 19 1.00
24 American Family Physician Primary Healthcare; Medicine, General & Internal 7.361 No 4 40 3.33 12 0.63
25 Korean Journal of Family Medicine Primary Healthcare - Yes 2 16 1.33 12 0.63
26 NPJ Primary Care Respiratory Medicine Primary Healthcare; Respiratory System 3.706 No 4 53 4.82 11 0.58
27 Scandinavian Journal of Primary Healthcare Healthcare Sciences & Services; Primary Healthcare; Medicine, General & Internal 3.227 No 2 2 2.00 11 0.58
28 Primary Care Primary Healthcare Medicine, General & Internal 3.602 No 3 130 16.25 8 0.42
29 Journal of Family Practice Primary Healthcare Medicine; General & Internal 0.837 No 1 1 0.14 7 0.37
*5YIF: Five Year Journal Impact Factor, ESCI: Emerging Sources Citation Index, HI:H-Index, TC: Times Cited, APCD: Average Citation Per Articles, N: Record Count.

 

Appendix G. Top 30 most cited articles on COVID-19 in PHC Research Area: PHC: primary healthcare
Rank Title Journal Authors Year ACPY Times cited
1 Impact of COVID-19 on loneliness, mental health, and health service utilisation: a prospective cohort study of older adults with multimorbidity in primary care British Journal of General Practice Wong, SYS; Zhang, DX; (…); Mercer, SW 2020 38.80 194
2 Implementation of remote consulting in UK primary care following the COVID-19 pandemic: a mixed-methods longitudinal study British Journal of General Practice Murphy, M; Scott, LJ; (…); Horwood, J 2021 48.25 193
3 Lessons on the COVID-19 pandemic, for and by primary care professionals worldwide European Journal of General Practice Rawaf, S; Allen, LN; (…); van Weel, C 2020 35.40 177
4 Telemedicine in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic Atencion Primaria Vidal-Alaball, J; Acosta-Roja, R; (…); Segui, FL 2020 34.00 170
5 Implementation and Usefulness of Telemedicine During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Scoping Review Journal of Primary Care and Community Health Hincapie, MA; Gallego, JC; (…); Escobar, MF 2020 29.00 145
6 Telehealth consultations in general practice during a pandemic lockdown: survey and interviews on patient experiences and preferences BMC Family Practice Imlach, F; McKinlay, E; (…); McBride-Henry, K 2020 26.20 131
7 Redesigning Primary Care to Address the COVID-19 Pandemic in the Midst of the Pandemic Annals of Family Medicine Krist, AH; DeVoe, JE; (…); Jones, SM 2020 25.40 127
8 Post-acute and long-COVID-19 symptoms in patients with mild diseases: a systematic review Family Practice van Kessel, SAM; Hartman, TCO; (…); van Jaarsveld, CHM 2022 41.67 125
9 A Qualitative Study of Primary Care Physicians’ Experiences with Telemedicine During COVID-19 Journal of The American Board of Family Medicine Gomez, T; Anaya, YB; (…); Tarn, DM 2021 29.25 117
10 A Mixed-Methods Pilot Study of Perinatal Risk and Resilience During COVID-19 Journal of Primary Care and Community Health Farewell, CV; Jewell, J; (…); Leiferman, JA 2020 22.20 111
11 The impact of COVID-19 on chronic care according to providers: a qualitative study among primary care practices in Belgium Bmc Family Practice Danhieux, K; Buffel, V; (…); van Olmen, J 2020 19.20 96
12 Mental Health Burden of the COVID-19 Outbreak in Germany: Predictors of Mental Health Impairment Journal of Primary Care and Community Health Bauerle, A; Steinbach, J; (…); Skoda, EM 2020 18.00 90
13 Clinicopathological characteristics of 8697 patients with COVID-19 in China: a meta-analysis Family Medicine and Community Health Zhu, JY; Zhong, ZM; (…); Zhao, CL 2020 17.20 86
14 The Effects of the Face Mask on the Skin Underneath: A Prospective Survey During the COVID-19 Pandemic Journal of Primary Care and Community Health Techasatian, L; Lebsing, S; (…); Kosalaraksa, P 2020 15.40 77
15 Impact of COVID-19 on migrants’ access to primary care and implications for vaccine roll-out: a national qualitative study British Journal of General Practice Knights, F; Carter, J; (…); Hargreaves, S 2021 18.25 73
16 Primary care in the time of COVID-19: monitoring the effect of the pandemic and the lockdown measures on 34 quality of care indicators calculated for 288 primary care practices covering about 6 million people in Catalonia BMC Family Practice Coma, E; Mora, N; (…); Medina, M 2020 14.60 73
17 Reorganisation of primary care for older adults during COVID-19: a cross-sectional database study in the UK British Journal of General Practice Joy, M; McGagh, D; (…); de Lusignan, S 2020 14.40 72
18 The State of Telehealth Before and After the COVID-19 Pandemic Primary Care Shaver, J 2022 23.67 71
19 Spiritual care—‘A deeper immunity’—A response to Covid-19 pandemic African Journal of Primary Healthcare & Family Medicine Roman, NV; Mthembu, TG and Hoosen, M 2020 13.40 67
20 The effect of isolation on athletes’ mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic Physician and Sports Medicine Senisik, S; Denerel, N; (…); Tunc, S 2021 12.40 62
21 A Multidisciplinary NHS COVID-19 Service to Manage Post-COVID-19 Syndrome in the Community Journal of Primary Care and Community Health Parkin, A; Davison, J; (…); Sivan, M 2021 15.25 61
22 The effectiveness of teleconsultations in primary care: systematic review Family Practice de Albornoz, SC; Sia, KL and Harris, A 2022 20.00 60
23 Impact of lockdown COVID-19 on metabolic control in type 2 diabetes mellitus and healthy people Primary Care Diabetes Karatas, S; Yesim, T and Beysel, S 2021 15.00 60
24 Sociodemographic Determinants of COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy, Fear of Infection, and Protection Self-Efficacy Journal of Primary Care and Community Health McElfish, PA; Willis, DE; (…); Selig, JP 2021 14.50 58
25 Recommendations for the recognition, diagnosis, and management of long COVID: a Delphi study British Journal Of General Practice Nurek, M; Rayner, C; (…); Delaney, BC 2021 14.25 57
26 Transformation of primary care during the COVID-19 pandemic: experiences of healthcare professionals in eight European countries British Journal of General Practice Wanat, M; Hoste, M; (…); Tonkin-Crine, S 2021 13.75 55
27 Physician Burnout in Primary Care during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Cross-Sectional Study in Portugal Journal Of Primary Care And Community Health Baptista, S; Teixeira, A; (…); Duarte, I 2021 12.50 50
28 What should primary care look like after the COVID-19 pandemic? Australian Journal of Primary Health Duckett, S 2020 10.00 50
29 Telehealth challenges during COVID-19 as reported by primary healthcare physicians in Quebec and Massachusetts BMC Family Practice Breton, M; Sullivan, EE; (…); McAlearney, AS 2021 12.25 49
30 Insulin resistance in COVID-19 and diabetes Primary Care Diabetes Govender, N; Khaliq, OP; (…); Naicker, T 2021 12.25 49
ACPY: average citations per year, TC: times cited.

Fig 6
Appendix H. Conceptual structure topic dendrogram factorial analysis (Field: Abstract) Part 1

Fig 7
Appendix I. Conceptual structure topic dendrogram factorial analysis (Field: Abstract) Part 2

Fig 8
Appendix J. Conceptual structure topic dendrogram factorial analysis (Field: Abstract) Part 3