Table 3.
Performance of three telemedicine networks
| SCT | Ukraine | ITM | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Performance measure | Comment | Value | Comment | Value | Comment | Value |
| Statistics for the year 2009 | Statistics for the year 2007–2009 | Statistics from April 2003–March 2009 | ||||
| Requester's perspective | ||||||
| 1. Rate of query arrival (new cases) | 19.4/month | 5.8/month | 15.5/month | |||
| 2. Proportion of failed queries | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||
| 3. Time to first reply from an expert | Median | 17 hours | 30 hours | 24 hours | ||
| 4. Quality of replies | Some evidence from a research project (10). Referring clinicians reported that in 100% of cases followed up (n=22), the advice was useful | Not measured routinely | Some evidence from a research project (11). The quality of replies was measured according to a specially developed scale (20). Ninety-two per cent of replies (n=132) were judged to be highly relevant | Not measured routinely | Some evidence from a research project (12) | |
| User satisfaction (38 respondents) measured on a scale 1–10. Utility of advice was rated 8–9 by 70% of the respondents | Not measured routinely | |||||
| 5. Ease of system usage | Not measured | Not measured | Not measured | |||
| Coordinator's perspective | ||||||
| 1. Rate of query arrival | New queries, plus those requiring additional responses | 37.7/month | New queries | 5.8/month | New queries. | 15.5/month |
| 2. Time required | Not measured | 15–30 min | Not measured | |||
| 3. Resources available | 406 experts available | Five experts available | 16 experts available | |||
| 4. Feedback from experts/feedback on patient outcomes | Not measured | Some evidence from a research project (11). Feedback was available on the relevance of the teleconsultation for 63% of the cases (n=132) | ||||
| Feedback was available on patient outcomes for 33% of the patients (n=132) | Not measured routinely | Not measured | ||||
| 5. Ease of system usage | Not measured | Not measured | Not measured | |||
| Expert's perspective | ||||||
| 1. Rate of requests received (for those experts who received queries) | 2.8/year per expert | 5.4/year per expert | 9.9/year per expert | |||
| 2. Time required to answer | Median time from allocation to response | 11.0 hours | 30 min | Not measured | ||
| 3. Relevance to own expertise | Not measured | Not measured | Not measured | |||
| 4. Feedback on patient outcomes | Some evidence from a research project (10) | Not measured routinely | Some evidence from a research project (11) | Not measured routinely | Not measured | |
| 5. Ease of system usage | Not measured | Not measured | Not measured | |||
| Societal perspective | ||||||
| 1. Clinical-effectiveness | Some evidence from a research project (10). Referring clinicians reported that the telemedicine advice was useful in 21 of 22 cases followed up, and the outcome for the patient was good in 15 cases | Not measured routinely | Some evidence from a research project (11). Referring clinicians reported that telemedicine produced satisfactory outcomes in 22% of cases (n=132) and good or excellent outcomes in a further 76% | Not measured routinely | Some evidence from a research project (13). Referring clinicians reported that telemedicine was useful in influencing the management of their patients in 100% of cases (n=37) | Not measured routinely |
| 2. Cost-effectiveness | Not measured | Not measured | Not measured | |||
| 3. Integration into the health care system, for example, involvement of local people | Not measured | Not measured | Not measured | |||