The development of a telemedicine service maturity model

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: A telemedicine service is a healthcare service (-medicine) that is delivered overa distance (tele-). The interest in the potential of telemedicine to increase thequality, accessibility, utilization, e ciency and e ectiveness of healthcare servicesis fuelled by the rapid development of information and communication technology(ICT) and connectivity. Despite this potential, the success rate of telemedicineservices disappoints. Many mistakes in the implementation of telemedicine servicesare repeated over and over again and best practices are not captured and replicated.This study responds to the need for reference models for the assessment andoptimization of telemedicine services in a consistent, systematic and systemic way.Maturity models are reference models that describe typical patterns in the developmentof organizational capabilities and depict a sequence of stages towards thedesired state. Many reference models exist that are applicable to telemedicineservices, but none of these provide guidance for the optimization of services, like amaturity model does. Many maturity models exist within a health systems context,but none of these can be applied as is to telemedicine services.In this study an iterative top-down design approach is followed to develop a TelemedicineService Maturity Model (TMSMM). This model facilitates the assessmentof a telemedicine service on micro, meso, and macrolevel along all the domainsthat comprise the telemedicine health system. Sets of capability statements arede ned, which follow each other in a cumulative manner, hence providing a maturationpath towards the desired maturity state.These sets of capability statements provide yardsticks according to which quantitativevalues are allocated to an intangible concept, such as maturity. Oncean individual service is assessed, further actions towards the optimization of theservice can be derived from these yardsticks. The multidimensional design of theTMSMM, as well as the fact that capability statements facilitate the consistentquanti cation of maturity, makes it possible to analyze the aggregated results ofcohort of services. To accomplish this, principles of business intelligence and datawarehouse design are applied together with online analytic processing (OLAP)procedures.The TMSMM addresses the previously unful lled need for a reference model toassess and optimize telemedicine services in a consistent, systematic and systemicway. This study spans several academic and professional domains and therebycontributes to the scienti c world of telemedicine and ehealth.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University