Donovan T, Abell B, McPhail SM, Carter HE. Development of an instrument (Cost-IS) to estimate costs of implementation strategies for digital health solutions: a modified e-Delphi study. Implement Sci. 2025;20(1):13. doi:10.1186/s13012-025-01423-w
This study used a modified e-Delphi design to develop an instrument to determine the cost of implementation. The aim is for this consensus instrument to aid with the planning, delivery, and evaluation of digital health implementation strategies. The final panel comprised twelve experts across digital health, implementation science, and economics. While most of the items in the COST-IS instrument reached consensus, four items did not and were addressed in round 2 (nature of research costs, prior implementation science knowledge, additional digital health examples, and digital formatting). After round 2, all aspects met complete consensus. COST-IS utilizes existing project documentation to estimate implementation cost, specifically designed for use with digital health implementation projects. The instrument designed from literature, and refined using a modified e-Delphi process provides flexible and pragmatic guidelines for assessing implementation costs. Future research will be needed to determine the feasibility and generalizability of COST-IS.