The economics of telepathology - a case study

There are several obstacles that slow down the diffusion of telepathology. One is related to uncertainty about the economic consequences of its adopti on, possibly more so than in other fields of telemedicine. We have evaluate d the economics of telepathology when used to provide a frozen-section serv ice to a mountain hospital, in comparison with three current alternatives. In the specific situations studied, no one model was always less expensive than the others. In particular, owing to the very low cost of the ambulance service provided by the Red Cross, the ambulance model was least expensive when dealing with up to 73 frozen sections a year, while at higher case-lo ads telepathology was cheaper. If ambulance transfer is neglected, telepath ology appears to be the most convenient approach to the remote frozen-secti on service. Although the consultant pathologist costs more than telemedicin e, during free time he/she could perform other (routine) work, thus reducin g the real cost of frozen sections.