Economic assessment of Telepal - a telepalliation programme

A study from 2019 shows that the majority of Danish patients want to receive palliative care in their own home. To make this possible, a project ran from 2021-2025 where a digital platform called TelePal.dk had to be developed. The idea was that, via the platform, you could create an individual palliation course with health professionals, make calls and video calls with health professionals and get timely, evidence-based information about the last phase of life.

AIM

The Telepal project had to identify challenges related to palliative care, from the point of view of the patients, their relatives and the palliative care team, and in addition the telepalliative platform had to be tested in a clinical randomised trial in the Region of Southern Denmark.

CIMT's role in the project is to investigate the health economic aspects of the Telepal programme as an alternative to conventional palliative treatment. The analyses will calculate what it costs to offer Telepal on average per patient, as well as investigate whether Telepal can have an effect on quality of life and other use of healthcare.

PARTNERS

• Palliative Team, Esbjerg and Grindsted Hospitals, Region of Southern Denmark
• Laboratory for Welfare Technology, Department of Health Science and Technology, Aalborg University
• Department of Psychology and Behavioural Sciences, Aarhus University

EXTERNAL FUNDING

The research project was financed with funds from the Danish Cancer Society and Esbjerg and Grindsted Hospitals in Esbjerg.