BUDAPEST, HUNGARY - (HealthTech Wire / News) - John Bowis, MEP and former UK health minister, underlined the need to persuade ministers, commissioners and parliamentarians that telemedicine is an important area for investment - not only because it will save money but also because it improves the quality of life. At eHealth Week 2011 he hosted an early morning session today on evidence-informed policy decisions in telemedicine.
- Scientific literature is divided with regard to the benefits of telemedicine
- Telemedicine should not be assessed on its own, but as part of the healthcare process
- “Technology assessment should include outcomes for patients, clinicians, healthcare institutions and society”
“Technology assessment should include outcomes for patients, clinicians, healthcare institutions and society,” said José Asua from the Department of Health in the Basque country in Spain, where teleophthalmology has halved waiting times for patients. They have also implemented a web 2.0-based telemedicine service to help patients with chemotherapy, and are expecting the first evaluations soon.
Speaking on behalf of the European Commission, Francisca Garcia Lizana, Policy Officer at DG Infso, said that the EC believed in telemedicine, given the current need for new healthcare models to help optimize chronic disease management. However, scientific literature is divided with regard to the benefits of telemedicine. There is a lack of robust research on implementation risks and cost-effectiveness has not yet been demonstrated.
Lizana said that available studies often come to opposing conclusions. The problem is in the conception of telemedicine and how we assess it.
“Telemedicine is part of a complex healthcare process with different actors, factors and devices,” she said. “The change of any parameter in the process affects the total outcome. It is therefore difficult to measure the benefits of telemedicine on its own,” she said.
“We need more research but we should learn from the past and not repeat the same mistakes,” she said, calling for an approach to “evaluate the process and not the technology.”
The largest clinical trial for telemedicine in the world is currently under way in nine European regions with 7,000 patients: the Renewing Health project. It seeks to build up a body of evidence for a broad implementation of telemedicine services. Details of the Renewing Health project were presented by Dr. Panagiotis Stafylas, Cardiologist at AHEPA University Hospital in Greece. He confirmed that we are missing important data on cost-effectiveness, reimbursement and interoperability, saying that a cost analysis should come first, followed by an evaluation of the organizational challenges and the perception of healthcare professionals.
Moderator John Bowis added that we should not forget to look at non-objective evidence as well – which comes from the patient: “We have the investment in patient groups - because we need the evidence of the experts, and those are the patients,” he said.
Telemedicine is an investment that needs to be made in times of austerity and that is not easy. Evidence will help convince politicians to “spend now to make savings later,” Bowis said. “We need to build an alliance but we need the evidence to put pressure on the politicians.”
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Source: HealthTech Wire
