Essays on digital health interventions

Abstract

In the Catalan public health system, the provision of services through the use of digital health tools has gone hand in hand with the increasing digitalization of society as a whole. Since these services are often implemented on an experimental basis in a search for innovation, and in the absence of a rule governing the adoption of public policies, they may be exempt from a comprehensive analysis of their pros and cons (an economic evaluation). However, digitalization involves the generation of objective evidence: information stored in databases which can be analysed. There has never been so much information of such good quality. As a result, this dissertation aims to evaluate digital health interventions undertaken by the public health system of Catalonia to analyse evidence regarding its efficiency. The compendium of articles, the main part of this document, consists of the evaluation of three interventions (interconsultation, teleconsultation and telemonitoring). It is concluded that certain digital health tools appear to be cost-effective, and it is recommended that they be supported and promoted; others require further evaluation before a decision can be taken as to whether they ought to be included in the provision of public services.