Demonstrating the value of cancer biomarkers at the population level

The European Journal of Health Economics -     

To participate or not participate in unprofessional behavior – Is that the question?

Introduction: Medical education provides students with abundant learning opportunities, each of which is embodied with messages concerning what is expected from students. This paper analyses students? exposure to instances of unprofessional behavior, investigating whether they judge such behavior to be unprofessional and whether they also participate in unprofessional behavior.

Methods: The survey developed in the Pritzker School of Medicine at the University of Chicago was the basis of this questionnaire that was answered by 276 students from two medical schools in Brazil and Portugal.

Results: Unprofessional behavior was observed frequently by students in both universities, and the mean participation rates were similar (26% and 27%). Forty-five percent of students? participation in unprofessional behavior was explained by academic year, prior observation, and judgment.

Discussion: The results indicate that once students have observed, participated in or misjudged unprofessional behavior, they tend to participate in and misjudge such behavior. The frequency with which students judged behaviors they had observed or participated in as ?borderline? or unprofessional could mean that they are experiencing moral distress.

Conclusion: Proper discussion of unprofessional behavior should foster a broad debate to encourage empowered students, faculties, and physicians to co-create a more professional environment for patient care.     

Budgetary Impact and Cost Drivers of Drugs for Rare and Ultrarare Diseases

Objectives

To review recent studies reporting health care expenditures (budgetary impact) for orphan medicinal products (OMPs) in Europe and to contribute to our understanding of the cost drivers of nononcological OMPs by means of an empirical analysis in Germany.

A model to predict the cost‐effectiveness of disease management programs

High costs and deficits in the care of patients with chronic diseases have triggered numerous programs to improve the quality and efficiency of treatment of chronic diseases. Decision makers need to estimate the impact of a disease management program (DMP) on long‐term costs and cost‐effectiveness in order to decide which programs to introduce. This prediction, however, requires formalizing the relations between a variety of variables. The purpose of this paper is to formalize these relations and develop a model that enhances the quality of predictions of the costs and cost‐effectiveness of a DMP. The model's cost function is able to portray a reduction both of treatment overuse and underuse by improving both physician and patient compliance. The model's applicability is demonstrated by a simulated DMP for patients with hypertension. The application example shows that implementation costs may have a larger financial impact than downstream costs. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Cost-effectiveness analysis of different screening procedures for type 2 diabetes: the KORA Survey 2000

OBJECTIVE: To compare the cost-effectiveness of different type 2 diabetes screening strategies using population-based data (KORA Survey; Augsburg, Germany; subjects aged 55-74 years), including participation data. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: The decision analytic model, which had a time horizon of 1 year, used the following screening strategies: fasting glucose testing, the oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) following fasting glucose testing in impaired fasting glucose (IFG) (fasting glucose + OGTT), OGTT only, and OGTT if HbA(1c) was >5.6% (HbA(1c) + OGTT), all with or without first-step preselection (p). The main outcome measures were costs (in Euros), true-positive type 2 diabetic cases, incremental cost-effectiveness ratios (ICERs), third-party payers, and societal perspectives. RESULTS: After dominated strategies were excluded, the OGTT and HbA(1c) + OGTT from the perspective of the statutory health insurance remained, as did fasting glucose + OGTT and HbA(1c) + OGTT from the societal perspective. OGTTs (4.90 per patient) yielded the lowest costs from the perspective of the statutory health insurance and fasting glucose + OGTT (10.85) from the societal perspective. HbA(1c) + OGTT was the most expensive (21.44 and 31.77) but also the most effective (54% detected cases). ICERs, compared with the next less effective strategies, were 771 from the statutory health insurance and 831 from the societal perspective. In the Monte Carlo analysis, dominance relations remained unchanged in 100 and 68% (statutory health insurance and societal perspective, respectively) of simulated populations. CONCLUSIONS: The most effective screening strategy was HbA(1c) combined with OGTT because of high participation. However, costs were lower when screening with fasting glucose tests combined with OGTT or OGTT alone. The decision regarding which is the most favorable strategy depends on whether the goal is to identify a high number of cases or to incur lower costs at reasonable effectiveness.     

Antithymocyte globulin use for treatment of biopsy confirmed acute rejection is associated with prolonged renal allograft survival

Antithymocyte globuline (ATG) and OKT3 have been used for treatment of severe biopsy confirmed acute renal allograft rejection (BCAR). We report results on graft and patient survival including 399 subjects diagnosed with BCAR treated with either ATG or OKT3. Multivariable analyses including Banff scores were performed following three different strategies to account for confounding variables. Fifty per cent of subjects in the OKT3 group had a functioning graft 6.3 years after diagnosis of BCAR, but 74% of ATG patients' grafts were still functioning at that time point (log rank P  = 0.006). Median actual graft survival was only 4.6 years in the OKT3 subjects, but 9.5 years for ATG-treated patients (log rank P  = 0.004). Multivariable analysis revealed that the risk for functional graft loss was significantly elevated in the OKT3 compared to ATG patients (HR = 1.79, 95% CI 1.06–3.02, P  = 0.029). The risk for actual graft loss, counting death as event, was also significantly elevated in the OKT3 patients (HR = 1.73, 95% CI 1.09–2.74, P  = 0.019). The hazard of death was not different between the groups (HR = 1.55, 95% CI 0.87–2.77, P  = 0.137). These data suggest that rejecting renal allografts treated with ATG exhibit longer graft survival than OKT3 treated transplant kidneys. Causal inference, however, cannot be drawn from this associational study.     

Cost-Effectiveness of Using Clinical Risk Factors with and without DXA for Osteoporosis Screening in Postmenopausal Women

Background:  According to several guidelines, the assessment of postmenopausal fracture risk should be based on clinical risk factors (CRFs) and bone density. Because measurement of bone density by dual x-ray absorptiometry (DXA) is quite expensive, there has been increasing interest to estimate fracture risk by CRFs.
Objective:  The aim of this study was to determine the cost-effectiveness of osteoporosis screening of CRFs with and without DXA compared with no screening in postmenopausal women in Germany.
Methods:  A cost-utility analysis and a budget-impact analysis were performed from the perspective of the statutory health insurance. A Markov model simulated costs and benefits discounted at 3% over lifetime.
Results:  Cost-effectiveness of CRFs compared with no screening is €4607, €21,181, and €10,171 per quality-adjusted life-year (QALY) for 60-, 70-, and 80-year-old women, respectively. Cost-effectiveness of DXA plus CRFs compared with CRFs alone is €20,235 for 60-year-old women. In women above the age of 70, DXA plus CRFs dominates CRFs alone. DXA plus CRFs results in annual costs of €175 million, or 0.4% of the statutory health insurance's annual budget.
Conclusion:  Funders should be careful in adopting a strategy based on CRFs alone instead of DXA plus CRFs. Only if DXA is not available, assessing CRFs only is an acceptable option in predicting a woman's risk of fracture.