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The economic aspects of the health telematics must be considered from two points of view. The administrative applications are suitable as start-applications, because their data structures and processes are well known, and the calculation of the individual monetary effects have a solid empirical basis. However, only the medical applications will exhaust the real potential of health telematics and only these applications will justify the political and financial effort involved.

With the increasing number of users and technical improvements, there are several application scenarios of teleradiology. To perform a cost-benefit analysis, an approach is presented, which focuses on both monetary and qualitative aspects. Process-related, qualitative and quantitative evaluations are described. The prestudy compares the radiological workflow before and after the introduction of a teleradiology system. A scoring model is part of the qualitative evaluation. The quantitative study focuses on costs and savings. Amortisation and a net present value of savings versus costs can be derived using dynamic investment methods. Savings can be achieved after a short time under ideal conditions, but there is no guarantee for a reimbursement for all systems.