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. 2022 Oct 11;13:164. doi: 10.1186/s13244-022-01304-6

Table 5.

Cost–benefit analysis for digitized versus conventional informed patient consent (D-IPC vs C-IPC)

Total count of IPC forms = 2016 Years
1 2 3 4 5
D-IPC C-IPC D-IPC C-IPC D-IPC C-IPC D-IPC C-IPC D-IPC C-IPC
A. Personnel—Operational Costs (€)
A-1. IPC preparation and patient assignment by technicians or support staff 4233.6 4233.6 4233.6 4233.6 4233.6 4233.6 4233.6 4233.6 4233.6 4233.6
A-2. Manually archiving IPC forms by technicians or support staff 0 4233.6 0 4233.6 0 4233.6 0 4233.6 0 4233.6
A-3. Estimated time effort of physicians to complete IPC process 6048 6048 6048 6048 6048 6048 6048 6048 6048 6048
A-4. Costs of wrong archival storage and retrieval efforts 0 84.7 0 84.7 0 84.7 0 84.7 0 84.7
B. IT service—operational costs (€)
B-1. Installation process (server software) 7500 2000 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
B-2. Installation process (tablet device) 1080 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
B-3. Maintenance and Support Services 3168 0 3168 0 3168 0 3168 0 3168 0
B-4. Network/Hosting Services 243 243 243 243 243 243 243 243 243 243
B-5. Costs per analog questionnaire (50 cents) 0 1008 1008 0 1008 0 1008 0 1008
B-6. Cost per digital questionnaire (40 cents) and digital signature (20 cents) 1209 0 1209 0 1209 0 1209 0 1209 0
C. Hardware—operational costs (€)
C-1. Physician tablet (n = 2) 1600 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
C-2. Patients tablet (n = 10) 4000 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
C-3. Energy costs tablets 63.6 63.6 63.6 63.6 0 63.6 0
C-4. Paper costs 0 40.32 0 40.32 0 40.32 0 40.32 0 40.32
C-5. Printing costs 0 282.24 0 282.24 0 282.24 0 282.24 0 282.24
D. others—operational costs (€)
D-1. Disposal of informed patient consent documentation (after 30 years) 0 n/a 0 n/a 0 n/a 0 n/a 0 n/a
E. Quality improvement of patient care
E-1. High availability and readability of patient information in each workplace ++ ++ ++ ++ ++
E-2. Pre-filled questionnaire forms for recurrent CT examinations ++ ++ ++ ++ ++
E-3. Structured access and evaluation to red flag questions for potential contraindications ++ ++ ++ ++ ++
E-4. Ease of use for patients with reduced digital literacy + + + + +
Total costs per annum (€) 29145.2 17971.5 14965.2 15971.5 14965.2 15971.5 14965.2 15971.5 14965.2 15971.5
Total costs (€) (5 years)
Digitized informed patient consent 89006 (+ 8.7%)
Conventional informed patient consent 81857.3