Economic Impact The economic impact of telemedicine is a critical factor to examine when examining the feasibility of integrating such technologies into practice. Exploring the economics is also essential as it has been hypothesized that telemedicine has the potential to provide care to individuals at a cost savings (Wade, Karnon, Elshaug, & Hiller, 2010). Furthermore, estimated spending on telehealth services and technology is expected to reach billions of dollars (Berger, 2010). However, there are myriad individual elements that can be considered across the broad field of economics, which complicates determining economic impact parsimoniously (Bergmo, 2009; Wade, et al., 2010). investment expenditures in telemedicine technologies with the ability to generate sufficient revenue to cover these costs. This is often difficult as the expenses indicated in the literature can cover those directly related to the provision of care (healthcare costs) and those that are not directly related to the provision of care (non-healthcare costs) (Bergmo, 2009). Some of the healthcare costs a doctor must consider include items such as computers, cameras, microphones, modems, routers, software, and other components such as specialized stethoscopes and imaging equipment needed to evaluate an individual patient. The cost of these items can add up quickly. As estimated by one study, the capital expenditure for implementing video conferencing in telemedicine can reach up to $80,000. The cost of data transmission to provide these services can also reach $800-$2,000 per month in spoke- and hub-type telemedicine systems (Gamble, Savage, & Icenogle, 2004). These costs are even greater… middle of the paper… to understand the cost benefit of telemedicine applications. Hospital Topics: Healthcare Research and Perspectives Palmas, W., Shea, S., Starren, J., Teresi, JA, Ganz, M.L., Burton, T.M., et al. (2010). Medicare payments, health services utilization, and telehealth implementation costs in a randomized trial comparing telehealth case management to usual care in medically disadvantaged participants with diabetes mellitus (IDEATel). Journal of the American Informatics Association, 17, 196-202. Shea, S. (2007). The Informatics for Diabetes and Educational Telemedicine (IDEATel) project. Transactions of the American Clinical and Climatological Association, 118, 289-304. Wade, V. A., Karnon, J. Elshaug, A., & Hiller, J. E. (2010). A systematic review of economic analyzes of telemedicine services using real-time video communication. BMC Health Service Research,