e18859 Background: Health Economics is a multi-disciplinary practice that recently gained recognition in healthcare management systems. Value-based healthcare (VBHC) focuses on improving patient outcomes while using fewer healthcare resources. Integrating the principles of health economics and VBHC are essential to better inform decision-making based on evidence, especially in resource-limited settings, that need ultimate efficiency in managing resources. Egypt has the highest second estimated number of incident childhood cancer cases in the Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR), based on GLOBOCAN 2020. Thus, childhood cancer in Egypt is an urging priority due to the large number of patients, limited resources, and poor outcomes. There is a need to optimize resource use and promote value in care delivery for childhood cancer care in Egypt, based on real-world evidence. Methods: This work aims to highlight the role of establishing a health economics and value (HEV) unit at the Children’s Cancer Hospital 57357 –Egypt (CCHE), to improve care and outcomes for children with cancer efficiently. CCHE is a not-for profit pediatric oncology center, treating around 50–60% of childhood cancers across Egypt free of charge. Results: The HEV unit was established in 2017 as a sub-function of the upper management at the hospital. The core mission of the unit is to translate health economics and VBHC concepts into practice to promote evidence-based decision-making, through applying the following functions and activities: monitoring trends in childhood cancer survival, resource use, and costs; applying health economic evaluation tools such as cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA) and multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA); applying time-driven activity based costing (TDABC); implementing VBHC on a disease- and a hospital-level; monitoring costs and benchmarking. Some of these functions/activities reflect on operational processes such as integrating the CEA tools within the hospital procedures to maximize value of money spent; and restructuring hospital-wide cost centers for accurate costs reporting. Capacity building is also an important pillar in the unit’s framework, where the unit team conducts internal and external training sessions and workshops to spread the knowledge about health economics, VBHC, and evidence-based healthcare. Conclusions: The HEV unit at CCHE presents a unique model of applying health economics and value-based healthcare at a micro level in a pediatric oncology center in Egypt. This is a novel approach for healthcare management in Egypt and making informed decisions based on real-world evidence.
The complexity of diagnosing rare disease: An organizing framework for outcomes research and health economics based on real-world evidence
