Framework for Conducting Maturity Evaluation of Teleconsultation Platforms: A COVID-19 Motivated Project from India

We conducted online evaluations of 58 teleconsultation platforms to identify the expectations and feature requirements of multiple stakeholders, including doctors, hospital administrators, hospital IT managers and health technology platform vendors. We then analyzed evaluation summaries and propose a maturity evaluation framework; a consensus development process was employed and experts from all participating organizations in the alliance were engaged. The resultant maturity framework is descriptive in nature, with three levels presented in a clear and concise manner. We recommend to view maturity as a dynamic and ongoing process. Patient-centric features were found to be desirable during evaluations, but ultimately took a backseat to medical and institutional logistics in terms of relevance for maturity evaluation. Compatibility of teleconsultation platforms with existing infrastructure and clinical practices was deemed important by all experts due to concerns about adoption and seamless transition to the new platform. This framework can serve as a roadmap for teleconsultation platform developers and could also be used to assess the teleconsultation platform maturity within a country, or organization.