Effect size and experimental power analysis in a paediatric cardiology telemedicine system.
A telemedicine system was installed between the University of North Carolina Hospitals and the New Hanover Regional Medical Center. It allowed the transmission of neonatal echocardiograms for immediate reporting. During a six-month study period the system was used for the interpretation of 110 echocardiograms from 48 babies. There were 38 babies studied in a retrospective control period. Hospital length of stay decreased by an average of six days in the telemedicine group, representing an annual saving of some $1.3 million. However, these apparent differences were not significant (P = 0.2) and a power analysis suggested that a sample size of some 600 would have been necessary.
Rendina
M C
MC
Division of Pediatric Cardiology, School of Medicine, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA. jedi@unc.edu
Long
W A
WA
deBliek
R
R
D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D004452:Echocardiography; D006331:Heart Diseases / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007234:Infant, Premature; D007235:Infant, Premature, Diseases / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D009657:North Carolina; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D017216:Telemedicine / Q000191:economics*