Authors' recommendations: The use of telemedicine in connection with echocardiography and preliminary investigations and follow-up for patients getting knee and hip prostheses was successful overall. The patients experienced improvements in both convenience and time saved since they did not have to travel to Rigshospitalet. Similarly, economic costs are reduced considerably by reducing the number of patient trips. This reduction means that the use of telemedicine has produced an overall economic benefit in the six months during which the number of telemedicine consultations was registered in connection with this pilot project. The reduced travel time will also potentially provide an overall economic benefit to society, since the patients do not have to take as much time off work as they did previously. The report does not discuss this. The attitudes of patients at Bornholm Hospital towards telemedicine became more positive as their knowledge of telemedicine increased. Both the questionnaire survey and the qualitative investigation (observation and interviews) showed this: the patients who knew nothing about telemedicine were mostly sceptical, and those who participated in a telemedicine consultation were mostly positive. Improving information on telemedicine can therefore reduce the scepticism towards telemedicine consultations. The results of the project emphasize the importance of involving the clinical practitioners in the development process, both to ensure their acceptance and because excellent professional knowledge of each patient group is required to assess whether telemedicine consultations can replace face-to-face consultations. The transition from a pilot project to full operation can be promoted by concentrating the telemedicine consultations at certain times to minimize the disruption to the other work of clinical practitioners. The collaboration between Rigshospitalet and Bornholm Hospital ensured this. The methods of telemedicine must also be sufficiently integrated into the organization. Further, planned telemedicine solutions must be based on the opportunities to recruit and retain employees at both hospitals with the aim of creating stable solutions. The technology needs to function well and the equipment must not disturb the physicians and the patients if physicians are to be able to communicate properly with their patients. The equipment functioned well in this project but can still be improved. A policy on the quality of service would reduce the few disturbances that still occur. This will strengthen the potential for disseminating this technology to other fields. The pilot project introduced telemedicine to a relatively limited number of patient groups, and telemedicine succeeded in relation to all the aspects assessed: technology, patients/clinical practitioners, organization and economics. Nevertheless, the results of the project indicate that the experience with telemedicine in the long term will result in more patient groups being considered suitable for telemedicine solutions. A small proportion of the total outpatient consultations can be carried out using telemedicine, but the project shows that this should be done where possible.

Project Status: Completed

Year Published: 2010

URL for published report: http://www.sst.dk/publ/Publ2010/EMM/Telemedicin/telemedicin.pdf

URL for additional information: http://www.sst.dk/publ/Publ2010/EMM/Telemedicin/telemedicin_summary.pdf

English language abstract: An English language summary is available

Publication Type: Not Assigned

Country: Denmark

Organisation Name: Danish Centre for Evaluation and Health Technology Assessment

Contact Address: National Board of Health, PO Box 1881, Islands Brygge 67, DK-2300 Copenhagen S, Denmark. Tel: 45 72 22 74 48; Fax: 45 72 22 74 07/67

Contact Name: dacehta@sst.dk

Contact Email: dacehta@sst.dk

Copyright: Danish Centre for Evaluation and Health Technology Assessment (DACEHTA)