@article{Capalbo:29167,
      recid = {29167},
      author = {Capalbo, Susan Marie and Heggem, Christine N.},
      title = {EVALUATING TELEMEDICINE TECHNOLOGIES IN RURAL SETTINGS},
      address = {1999},
      number = {1120-2016-91889},
      series = {Policy Issues Paper 10},
      pages = {19},
      year = {1999},
      abstract = {Changes in health care policies, demographics, and  technology have presented new opportunities for the  delivery of medical care services and information to rural  communities. Telemedicine-the use of electronic information  and communications technologies to provide and support  health care when distance separates the participants-has  significantly impacted the delivery of rural health care  services. This paper presents an overview of the  telemedicine technologies, government involvement in  support of telemedicine, and issues that need to be  addressed in designing an economic framework to evaluate  the net benefits of telemedicine to rural communities and  consumers. Federal and state governments have invested  millions of support dollars in the form of equipment,  infrastructure, and incentives for consumers and providers  to expand the use of telecommunications in medical care.  Since disbursement of these funds is already underway, it  only makes sense to develop a method to determine both  where and whether an additional dollar of funding for  telemedicine development would be of the greatest benefit  to society. If telemedicine can prove itself as a useful  method for improving the likelihood of survival of rural  hospitals, then, in the interest of rural development, it  may be a technology worth investing in; i.e., the social  benefits, measured as the sum of the private and public  benefits, may outweigh the costs. According to its  supporters, telemedicine systems have the potential to  simultaneously address several problems characteristic of  health care in rural areas, including access to care, cost  containment, and quality assurance. Access can be improved  by linking providers in remote areas with specialists in  metropolitan centers or peers in rural areas. Telemedicine  not only enables a wider range of services to be offered in  the local community but may have the added effect of  improving physician retention in isolated areas, one of the  primary challenges in maintaining access for frontier  medical centers. Telemedicine can promote cost containment  through the substitution of lower-cost rural providers and  facilities. Ideally, improved quality will be achieved by  the ready availability of consultations and referrals.  These are the potential benefits of telemedicine  implementation, but they have not yet been verified by  research in a field setting. An evaluation framework for  telemedicine needs to be capable of modeling changes in the  behavior of health care consumers (i.e., altered visitation  patterns), recognizing differences in quality of service,  and finally, quantifying the value of these changes. This  is no small task, and obtaining the required data will  likely require the cooperation of many parties, including  health care providers, patients, hospital and program  administrators, and policymakers. These are the same groups  that could benefit greatly from a better understanding of  how telemedicine technologies affect health care delivery,  but a meaningful framework for analysis needs to capture  the many aspects of telemedicine implementation.},
      url = {http://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/29167},
      doi = {https://doi.org/10.22004/ag.econ.29167},
}