'Background: Telehealth is the delivery of health care at a distance, using information and communication technology. The major rationales for its introduction have been to decrease costs, improve efficiency and increase access in health care delivery. This systematic review assesses the economic value of one type of telehealth delivery – synchronous or real time video communication – rather than examining a heterogeneous range of delivery modes as has been the case with previous reviews in this area.

Conclusion: Delivery of health services by real time video communication was cost-effective for home care and access to on-call hospital specialists, showed mixed results for rural service delivery, and was not cost-effective for local delivery of services between hospitals and primary care.'

Source: Wade, V. A., et al., 2010. BMC Health Services Research.