Economic Evaluation of a Telemedicine Service to expand Primary Health Care in Rio Grande do Sul: TeleOftalmo's microcosting analysis.

Abstract

This study evaluated the cost of public telediagnostic service in ophthalmology. The time-driven activity-based costing method (TDABC) was adopted to examine the cost components related to teleophthalmology. This method allowed us to establish the standard unit cost of telediagnosis, given the installed capacity and utilization of professionals. We considered data from one year of telediagnoses and evaluated the cost per telediagnosis change throughout technology adaptation in the system. The standard cost calculated by distance ophthalmic diagnosis was approximately R$ 119, considering the issuance of 1,080 monthly ophthalmic telediagnostic reports. We identified an imbalance between activities, which suggests the TDABC method's ability to guide management actions and improve resource allocation. The actual unit cost fell from R$ 783 to R$ 283 over one year - with room to approach the estimated standard cost. Partial economic evaluations contribute significantly to support the incorporation of new technologies. The TDABC method deserves prominence, as it enables us to retrieve more accurate information on the cost of technology, improving the scalability and management capacity of the healthcare system.