Telemedicine
Tele-orthopedics costs less than hospital visits
Open access · cc by · source: Europe PMC
In a Norwegian RCT, remote orthopedic video visits cost less than hospital outpatient visits with similar QALY gains.
How this study connects
Role on claims
Each row is a claim on a concept or method page where this paper supports, challenges, or qualifies the statement. Roles are hand-checked — not a model guess.
Telemedicine cost about €65 less per patient, QALY gains were similar (.09 vs .05, P=.29), and breakeven was 151 consultations per year societally (183 from a health-sector perspective).
Evidence for the claim as stated.
Study at a glance
- Design
- RCT — Prospective RCT of videoconference vs hospital orthopedic consultation, with economic analysis
- N
- Economic results reported per patient; trial N not extracted as a single total
- Population
- Orthopedic outpatients in remote northern/western Norway
- Outcome
- Cost per consultation of telemedicine versus hospital orthopedic visits
Structured fields used in claim comparison tables when every cited study has a complete layer.
Inspect source passages
Tele-orthopedics costs less than hospital visits
These passages occur verbatim in the stored paper text. They support the points listed below; they do not verify every statement in the explanation.
Telemedicine cost €65 less per patient than hospital consultations.
In total, the telemedicine service costs €65 less per patient than standard consultations at the hospital.
Societal breakeven was 151 patient consultations per year.
The number of patient consultations needed for telemedicine and standard consultation to be equally costly (breakeven) is 151 patients per year (see ).
Key findings
Telemedicine cost about €65 less per patient, QALY gains were similar (.09 vs .05, P=.29), and breakeven was 151 consultations per year societally (183 from a health-sector perspective).
Methodology
Alongside a prospective RCT in Troms County, researchers compared costs and QALYs for patients randomized to remote video orthopedic consultations (n=199) versus standard hospital outpatient visits (n=190), taking a societal perspective including travel and production loss.
Limitations
Results depend on long travel distances and nurse-hosted remote clinics; cheaper Skype setups or shorter distances change the breakeven, and quality of cheaper video was not evaluated.
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