Quality assessment and cataloguing of telemedicine applications.
We created a Web catalogue of approved telemedicine systems that authoritative Italian research bodies had made available for more general use. The evaluation process was divided into two stages: (1) classification of the telemedicine systems and rough preliminary evaluation; (2) assessment of the telemedicine products and services. The scoring method was applied to four well-known telemedicine systems that had been tested in health-care settings: an echocardiology teleconsulting and analysis system; a ward nursing management system; a virtual cooperative system for the management of oncology patients and a telepathology system based on remotely controlled microscopy. After technical revision during the standardization/qualification process, the applications were transferred successfully to eight new health-care facilities. The methodology achieved the main goal of providing effective tools, such as a set of quality control procedures for telemedicine and telehealth projects and a Web catalogue of telemedicine applications with a standardized level of quality, available to all interested parties.
Bedini
R
R
Institute of Clinical Physiology, National Research Council, Pisa, Italy. bedini@ifc.cnr.it
Belardinelli
A
A
Giansanti
D
D
Guerriero
L
L
Macellari
V
V
Morelli
S
S
D002376:Cataloging; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D007558:Italy; D015397:Program Evaluation; D017216:Telemedicine / Q000145:classification / Q000592:standards