An economic evaluation of an advanced video conferencing system for cardiac multidisciplinary team meetings

Abstract

Introduction Current UK and international guidelines advocate the need for multidisciplinary team (MDT) discussion of selected patients undergoing either percutaneous or surgical cardiac procedures to decide the optimal treatment strategy. To date, it is unknown if using videoconference facilities is cost‐effective. Therefore, we performed a cost analysis of using a high‐speed internet video conferencing system compared with conventional face‐to‐face MDT meetings. Methods Costs of running a conventional MDT meeting vs a video conferencing MDT were modelled and compared over a 2‐year period. Participants were also surveyed on the overall effectiveness of conducting remote MDTs. Results The set‐up and maintenance cost of the video conferencing system over 2 years was £30 400. The staff costs of running the face‐to‐face MDT were £95 970 and the video conferencing MDT was £23 992.50. The total travel costs of the conventional face‐to‐face MDTs were £10 555.34. In total, the cost of the conventional face‐to‐face MDT was £106 525.34 and the video conferencing MDT was £54 392.50 representing a cost saving of 48.9%. Participants rated the effectiveness of conducing a remote MDT and the ease of technology use as very good. Conclusions Video conferencing systems provide a highly cost‐effective method of facilitating MDT meetings between cardiologists and cardiac surgeons at remote centres.

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What is the role of the multidisciplinary team meeting in primary prolapse surgery and are alternative formats acceptable?

“…Dulai et al in 2020 compared the cost-effectiveness of virtual versus F2F MDT meetings for cardiac patients and reported a cost saving of 48.9% associated with the virtual MDT, largely relating to time and cost of travel required for F2F MDT meetings [23]. As MDTs are not funded at this institution, we are unable to comment on cost-effectiveness, but as it requires a similar amount of clinician time, it seemingly comes down to cost of room/facilities for F2F meetings versus cost of software for virtual meetings.…”