Telemedicine: A systematic review of economic evaluations

Abstract

Background: Telemedicine is an expanded term in health information technology that comprises procedures for transmitting medical information electronically to improve patients’ health status. The objective of this research is to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of telemedicine interventions in various specialty areas. Methods: The Cochrane Library and Centre for Review and Dissemination were searched up to February 2013 using Mesh. Studies that compared any kind of telemedicine with any other routine care technique and used cost per health utility unit’s outcomes were included. Results: Twenty-one articles were included. According to the included studies, it seems that using telemedicine in cardiology can be effective and cost-effective enough but pre-hospital telemedicine diagnostics program are likely to have little impact on acute myocardial infarction fatality. In pulmonary, telemedicine can be a cost-effective strategy for delivering outpatient pulmonary care to rural populations which have limited access to specialized services, but telemedicine is not cost- effective in asthma and airways cancer. In ophthalmology, especially in the diagnosis of diabetic retinopathy, the use of telemedicine is a cost-effective tool. In dermatology, telemedicine is not cost-effective enough in comparison of conventional cares. In other fields such as physical activity and diet, eating disorder, tele-ICU, psychotherapy for depression and telemedicine on ships, telemedicine can be used as a cost-effective tool for treatments or cares. Conclusion: Most of the included studies confirmed that telemedicine is cost-effective for applying in major medical fields such as cardiology; but in dermatology, papers could not confirm the positive capability of telemedicine.

Telemedicine in Long-Term Care Facilities During and Beyond COVID-19: Challenges Caused by the Digital Divide

“…Current projects (44) use Skype, for example, for telemedicine under control for privacy and security requirements. However, also potential socioeconomic inequalities in the use of telemedicine (45)(46)(47) or technology in general among older adults should be taken into account (15,19,33). Telemedicine enables cost savings (e.g., no transfer to the doctors' office), but also causes additional costs for older people (economical cost and acquired technical skills).…”

A Review of Patient and Provider Satisfaction with Telemedicine

“…According to the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, telemedicine (TM) can be defined as “the use of electronic information and telecommunications technologies to support and promote long-distance clinical health care, patient and professional health-related education, public health and health administration” [ 1 ]. To be widely adopted, TM must compete favorably with in-person visits in a variety of objective measures including clinical outcomes [ 2 ], cost (both direct and indirect) [ 3 ], and availability [ 4 , 5 ••]. In addition, patients and providers need to be at least as satisfied with their telehealth experience as they are with in-person visits.…”

A Cost-Minimization Analysis of a Medical Record-based, Store and Forward and Provider-to-provider Telemedicine Compared to Usual Care in Catalonia: More Agile and Efficient, Especially for Users

“…Telemedicine nowadays coexists alongside conventional healthcare in most healthcare systems [1]. Although systematic reviews of its economic impact suggest that, for the time being, it is not suited to widespread implementation in all specialties and contexts [2,3], recent studies suggest that it is cost-effective in fields such as emergency medicine, cardiology, the management of diabetes and ophthalmology [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11].…”