Home // International Journal On Advances in Life Sciences, volume 7, numbers 1 and 2, 2015 // View article

An economic model of remote specialist consultations using videoconferencing

Authors:
Trine Strand Bergmo

Keywords: remote care; telemedicine; videoconferencing; randomised trials; literature review; economic modelling; cost-effectiveness analysis.

Abstract:
Remote specialist consultations using videoconferencing have the potential to reduce costs and improve access to health care services. The University Hospital of North Norway now plans to replace some outpatient consultations with videoconferencing. As part of this initiative, a project assessing the use of models to analyse the economic impact of videoconferencing has been initiated. In this project, existing evidence found in the peer-reviewed literature and local cost data were used to build a model that illustrates the decision problem associated with investing in videoconferencing. This paper proposes a generic model that can be used as a template for more specific videoconferencing models. This work also presents a specific model illustrating the expected outcomes in the field of urology. Both of these models can be used to clarify the options under consideration, to assess potential costs and benefits, and to determine whether further analysis is need to enable informed decision making in the field. This paper also presents a threshold analysis and shows values for when a conclusion changes in favour of one of the options.

Pages: 20 to 29

Copyright: Copyright (c) to authors, 2015. Used with permission.

Publication date: June 30, 2015

Published in: journal

ISSN: 1942-2660