Telemedicine Research Trends: A Bibliometric Perspective on Security and Privacy

Aim: To explore the intersection of telemedicine, security and privacy through a comprehensive bibliometric analysis, with a focus on technological developments, thematic structures, and global research trends.Method: This study is a bibliometric analysis examining publication trends, thematic structures, keyword patterns and authorial, institutional and County-level contributions to telemedicine security research. A total of 10,641 peer-reviewed articles were retrieved from scientific databases covering health services, telemedicine and information technology literature from 2014 to April 2026. Co-occurrence analysis and thematic mapping were used to identify foundational, specialized, driving and emerging areas of inquiry. Bibliometric tools were used to analyze scientific production, collaboration patterns, keyword structures and thematic development.Results: The volume of research increased significantly after 2020, reflecting the growing role of telemedicine and digital health services during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings show that “telemedicine,” “privacy,” “security,” “digital health,” “mHealth,” and “telehealth” are among the most frequent and influential keywords in the field. The thematic map indicates that security, privacy and blockchain appear as specialized niche themes, whereas artificial intelligence, machine learning, deep learning, big data, and ethics represent emerging areas requiring stronger integration with telemedicine security and privacy research. The results also reveal broad contributions from various authors, institutions, journals, and countries, confirming the multidisciplinary and global nature of this research area.Conclusion: Research on telemedicine security is rapidly expanding, with increasing attention to digital health infrastructures, privacy protection, cybersecurity, and patient-centered remote care. Future studies should focus on integrating security and privacy mechanisms into mainstream telemedicine applications, developing secure data-sharing frameworks, strengthening ethical and privacy-preserving AI-based telemedicine systems and addressing user acceptance differences related to sociocultural, regional, and Digital literacy. These directions can support the development of safer, more trustworthy, inclusive, and sustainable digital health systems.