Exploration of benefits realisation management for teledermatology scale-up framework development and sustainable scaling

Abstract

Realisation of proven telemedicine scale-up benefits is a key consideration for South Africa, a developing country with a quadruple disease burden, inequitable access to healthcare, and ineffective and inefficient specialist referral pathways. Proven benefits of teledermatology include virtually enhancing access of rural communities to scarce urban specialist dermatologists, reducing time to triage of skin lesions, frequently an initial sign of underlying disease, and timely treatment initiation. Benefits realisation management (BRM) is a recognised means of managing how resources are invested into making effective and desirable changes, and enhancing project and programme success. The need for this study was identified in a recent review and critique of teledermatology and related scale-up frameworks. This study explores the use of BRM as a whole life-cycle approach applied to ehealth or teledermatology related scale-up framework development, and to sustain benefits of scaling ehealth or healthcare service delivery interventions.