PMID- 22356529
OWN - NLM
STAT- MEDLINE
DCOM- 20120815
LR  - 20151119
IS  - 1556-3669 (Electronic)
IS  - 1530-5627 (Linking)
VI  - 18
IP  - 3
DP  - 2012 Apr
TI  - Costs and benefits of personalized healthcare for patients with chronic heart 
      failure in the care and education program "Telemedicine for the Heart".
PG  - 198-204
LID - 10.1089/tmj.2011.0134 [doi]
AB  - OBJECTIVE: A health economic analysis was conducted to evaluate the program 
      "Telemedicine for the Heart," which the German Foundation for the Chronically Ill 
      organizes for the Techniker Krankenkasse, one of the biggest German statutory 
      health insurance funds. The program consists of nurse-calls to motivate patients 
      to perform regular self-measurements (blood pressure, pulse, weight) with either 
      their own or telemedical measuring devices provided by the program. In the case 
      of measured values outside of set limits, calls to treating physicians were 
      placed to allow for the initiation of therapy adjustments where applicable. 
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: To evaluate the program, a retrospective matched-pairs 
      analysis was performed. Program participants (n=281) and regularly insured 
      patients (n=843) were matched for demographics and morbidity status and compared 
      according to their use of resources. RESULTS: Significant cost differences in 
      favor of the study group of up to 25% in relation to total costs could be 
      detected, particularly in the group of New York Heart Association (NYHA) 
      classification II patients (persons with mild symptoms and slight limitation 
      according to the NYHA classification for the extent of heart failure). In the 
      more severe NYHA stages III and IV the cost relation differed and showed a slight 
      cost disadvantage for the program group. Mortality was 35.1% lower in the program 
      group than in the control group. Quality of life measures were almost constant 
      over the observation time, compatible with a positive impact of the program on 
      the highly impaired patient group. CONCLUSIONS: The findings suggest that, 
      besides a reduction of costs, by participating in "Telemedicine for the Heart" 
      patients with chronic heart failure experienced a reduced number of hospital 
      stays, optimized medical therapy, better quality of life, and reduced mortality.
FAU - Sohn, Stefan
AU  - Sohn S
AD  - Healthcare Management, University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Nuremberg, Germany. 
      stefan.sohn@wiso.uni-erlangen.de
FAU - Helms, Thomas M
AU  - Helms TM
FAU - Pelleter, Jorg T
AU  - Pelleter JT
FAU - Muller, Axel
AU  - Muller A
FAU - Krottinger, Annett I
AU  - Krottinger AI
FAU - Schoffski, Oliver
AU  - Schoffski O
LA  - eng
PT  - Journal Article
PT  - Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
DEP - 20120222
PL  - United States
TA  - Telemed J E Health
JT  - Telemedicine journal and e-health : the official journal of the American 
      Telemedicine Association
JID - 100959949
SB  - IM
MH  - Aged
MH  - Chronic Disease/therapy
MH  - Cost-Benefit Analysis/*statistics & numerical data
MH  - Female
MH  - Germany
MH  - Heart Failure/*economics/*therapy
MH  - Humans
MH  - Male
MH  - Middle Aged
MH  - Patient Education as Topic/economics
MH  - Precision Medicine/*economics
MH  - Retrospective Studies
MH  - Self Care/*economics
MH  - Telemedicine/*economics
EDAT- 2012/02/24 06:00
MHDA- 2012/08/16 06:00
CRDT- 2012/02/24 06:00
PHST- 2012/02/24 06:00 [entrez]
PHST- 2012/02/24 06:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 2012/08/16 06:00 [medline]
AID - 10.1089/tmj.2011.0134 [doi]
PST - ppublish
SO  - Telemed J E Health. 2012 Apr;18(3):198-204. doi: 10.1089/tmj.2011.0134. Epub 2012 
      Feb 22.