Cost-effectiveness of home telemedical cardiotocography compared with traditional outpatient monitoring

We compared the cost of passive sensor telemedical non-stress cardiotocogra phy performed at home and the same test performed by traditional equipment in an outpatient clinic in the Budapest area. The costs were calculated usi ng two years' registered budget data from the home monitoring service in Bu dapest and the outpatient clinic of the department of obstetrics and gynaec ology at the Haynal Imre University of Health Sciences. The traditional tes t at the university outpatient clinic cost 3652 forint for the health-care and 1000 forint in additional expenses for the patient (travel and time off work). This means that the total cost for each test in the clinic was 4652 forint. The cost of home telemedical cardiotocography was 1500 forint per test, but each test took 2.1 times as long. For a more realistic comparison between the two methods, we adjusted the cost to take account of the extra length of time that home monitoring required. The adjusted cost for home c are was 3150 forint some 32% lower than in the clinic. Passive sensor telem edical non-stress cardiotocography at home was therefore less expensive tha n the same test performed in the traditional way in an outpatient clinic.