Health Economics Research Group, Department of Sociology, University of Miami , Coral Gables, FL 33124, USA.
Telemed J E Health. 2009 Dec;15(10):933-48. doi: 10.1089/tmj.2009.0067.
Telemedicine programs provide specialty health services to remote populations using telecommunications technology. This innovative approach to medical care delivery has been expanding for several years and currently covers various specialty areas such as cardiology, dermatology, and pediatrics. Economic evaluations of telemedicine, however, remain rare, and few of those conducted have accounted for the wide range of economic costs and benefits. Rigorous benefit-cost analyses of telemedicine programs could provide credible and comparative evidence of their economic viability and thus lead to the adoption and/or expansion of the most successful programs. To facilitate more advanced economic evaluations, this article presents research guidelines for conducting benefit-cost analyses of telemedicine programs, emphasizing opportunity cost estimation, commonly used program outcomes, and monetary conversion factors to translate outcomes to dollar values. The article concludes with specific recommendations for future research.
远程医疗计划利用电信技术为偏远地区的人群提供专业的医疗服务。这种创新的医疗服务提供方式已经发展了好几年，目前涵盖了各个专业领域，如心脏病学、皮肤病学和儿科学。然而，远程医疗的经济评估仍然很少，而且很少有评估考虑到广泛的经济成本和效益。对远程医疗计划进行严格的效益成本分析，可以为其经济可行性提供可靠和可比的证据，从而导致最成功的计划的采用和/或扩大。为了促进更先进的经济评估，本文提出了进行远程医疗计划效益成本分析的研究指南，重点强调机会成本估算、常用的计划结果和货币转换因素，以将结果转换为美元价值。文章最后提出了未来研究的具体建议。
