One of the major questions that gets asked immediately after we are impressed with the technology of telepsychiatry, is 'how financially viable is this process.' The equipment is often expensive and the technical complexities can be a deterrant to implementation.
In this month's Psychiatric Services, Steven E. Hyler, M.D. and Dinu P. Gangure, M.D looked at 380 telepsychiatry studies published from 1956 through 2002 and selected 12 of these to evaluate for cost-feasibility, cost surveys, direct comparison of costs of telepsychiatry and in-person psychiatry, and finally cost analysis.
This survey concluded that telepsychiatry can be cost-effective in selected settings (e.g. geriatrics) and can be financially viable if used beyond the break-even point in relation to the cost of providing in-person psychiatric services. As technology becomes more sophisticated and the cost of equipment continues to drop, hopefully we can focus less on the financial aspects of this valuable technology and spend more time delineating the clinical specifics of when and where telepsychchiatry can be an effective and useful treatment modality.
Posted by rsk at July 10, 2003 11:28 PM