Preliminary Cost-Benefit Analysis of a Real-Time Telemedicine System

nformation and communication technology in the medical field has witnessed great advances at research level but it is still largely unapplied in routine clinical practice. Technology-driven solutions, proved experimentally effective, are not always efficient in the complex health world. Each form of innovation needs to be sustainable, from an economic and organizational points of view, if it is to progress from the prototype phase to become a practical element of the healthcare system. A cost-benefit analysis can help establish if this is the case. Here, we apply a preliminary cost-benefit analysis to the real-time telemedicine platform we developed. It has proven successful from a diagnostic point of view, but how does it perform from an economic perspective? Our analysis compares the overall cost of the platform to the economic savings made from its operational use - where unnecessary patients’ transfers are avoided. We estimate potential savings of about 66% of current costs.

@InProceedings{FTCMZMT14,
  author       = {Frexia, F. and Triunfo, R. and Cabras, F. and Mascia, C. and Zanetti, G. and Montis, S. and Tumbarello, R.},
  title        = {Preliminary Cost-Benefit Analysis of a Real-Time Telemedicine System},
  booktitle    = {eTELEMED 2014, The Sixth International Conference on eHealth, Telemedicine, and Social Medicine},
  series       = {eTELEMED 2014, The Sixth International Conference on eHealth, Telemedicine, and Social Medicine},
  pages        = {257--262},
  month        = {march},
  year         = {2014},
  editor       = {IARIA},
  publisher    = {IARIA},
  organization = {IARIA},
  keywords     = {real-time telemedicine; pediatric cardiology; cost benefit analysis},
  issn         = {2308-4359},
  isbn         = {978-1-61208-327-8},
  url          = {https://publications.crs4.it/pubdocs/2014/FTCMZMT14},
}