scholarly journals A Retrospective Analysis of Precision Medicine Outcomes in Patients With Advanced Cancer Reveals Improved Progression-Free Survival Without Increased Health Care Costs

2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. e108-e119 ◽  
Author(s):  
Derrick S. Haslem ◽  
S. Burke Van Norman ◽  
Gail Fulde ◽  
Andrew J. Knighton ◽  
Tom Belnap ◽  
...  

Purpose: The advent of genomic diagnostic technologies such as next-generation sequencing has recently enabled the use of genomic information to guide targeted treatment in patients with cancer, an approach known as precision medicine. However, clinical outcomes, including survival and the cost of health care associated with precision cancer medicine, have been challenging to measure and remain largely unreported. Patients and Methods: We conducted a matched cohort study of 72 patients with metastatic cancer of diverse subtypes in the setting of a large, integrated health care delivery system. We analyzed the outcomes of 36 patients who received genomic testing and targeted therapy (precision cancer medicine) between July 1, 2013, and January 31, 2015, compared with 36 historical control patients who received standard chemotherapy (n = 29) or best supportive care (n = 7). Results: The average progression-free survival was 22.9 weeks for the precision medicine group and 12.0 weeks for the control group ( P = .002) with a hazard ratio of 0.47 (95% CI, 0.29 to 0.75) when matching on age, sex, histologic diagnosis, and previous lines of treatment. In a subset analysis of patients who received all care within the Intermountain Healthcare system (n = 44), per patient charges per week were $4,665 in the precision treatment group and $5,000 in the control group ( P = .126). Conclusion: These findings suggest that precision cancer medicine may improve survival for patients with refractory cancer without increasing health care costs. Although the results of this study warrant further validation, this precision medicine approach may be a viable option for patients with advanced cancer.

2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah-Gabrielle Beland ◽  
Antoine Pariente ◽  
Yola Moride

Background. Published data on burden of dementia mainly include patients of third-care facilities. Economic consequences in an outpatient setting remain poorly examined. Objectives. To evaluate institutionalization-free survival and direct health care costs of dementia in the Quebec community-dwelling elderly population. Methods. A retrospective cohort study was conducted using the Quebec administrative claims databases. The cohort included a random sample of patients with treated dementia between January 1, 2000, and December 31, 2009 (n=37,138). The reference population included elderly patients without dementia matched in age group, gender, and index date. Using a third-party payer perspective, direct costs over 5 years were assessed. Results. Institutionalization-free survival at 5 years was lower in patients with dementia than in elderly without dementia (38.9% and 72.2%, resp.). Over 5 years, difference in mean total direct health care costs per patient was CAD$19,159, distributed into institutionalizations (CAD$13,598), hospitalizations (CAD$3,312), and prescribed medications (CAD$2,320). Costs of medical services were similar (−CAD$96). In the first year of followup, cost differentials were mainly attributable to hospitalizations, while in the last year (year 5) they were due to institutionalizations. Conclusion. This study confirms that dementia is an important socioeconomic burden in the community, the nature of which depends on disease progression.


2017 ◽  
Vol 76 (1) ◽  
pp. 89-114 ◽  
Author(s):  
Courtney Harold Van Houtven ◽  
Valerie A. Smith ◽  
Karen M. Stechuchak ◽  
Megan Shepherd-Banigan ◽  
Susan Nicole Hastings ◽  
...  

This study aimed to examine the early impact of the Program of Comprehensive Assistance for Family Caregivers (PCAFC) on Veteran health care utilization and costs. A pre-post cohort design including a nonequivalent control group was used to understand how Veterans’ use of Veteran Affairs health care and total health care costs changed in 6-month intervals up to 3 years after PCAFC enrollment. The control group was an inverse probability of treatment weighted sample of Veterans whose caregivers applied for, but were not accepted into, PCAFC. Veterans in PCAFC had similar acute care utilization postenrollment when compared with those in the control group, but significantly greater primary, specialty, and mental health outpatient care use at least 30, and up to 36, months postenrollment. Estimated total health care costs for PCAFC Veterans were $1,500 to $3,400 higher per 6-month interval than for control group Veterans. PCAFC may have increased Veterans’ access to care.


2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Viola Obermeier ◽  
Monika Murawski ◽  
Florian Heinen ◽  
Mirjam N. Landgraf ◽  
Andreas Straube ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Health care costs of migraine constitute a major issue in health economics. Several publications analyzed health care costs for adult migraine patients, based on questionnaires or secondary (health insurance) data. Although migraine often starts already in primary school age, data on migraine related costs in children is scarce. In this paper we aimed to assess the migraine-related health care costs in 6 to 11 year old children in Germany. Methods Using claims data of a large German health insurer (BARMER), overall annual health care costs of 6 to 11 year old children with a diagnosis of migraine in 2017 (n = 2597) were compared to a control group of 6 to 11 year old children without a headache diagnosis between 2013 and 2017 (n = 306,926). The association of migraine and costs was modeled by generalized linear regression (Gamma regression) with adjustment for sex, age and comorbidities. Results Children with migraine caused considerably higher annual per capita health care costs than children without a headache diagnosis (migraine group: € 1018, control group: € 618). Excess costs directly related to migraine amounted to € 115. The remaining excess costs were related to comorbidities, which were more frequent in the migraine group. Mental and behavioural disorders constituted the most expensive comorbidity, accounting for € 105 of the € 400 annual excess costs in the migraine group. Conclusion 6 to 11 year old children with a migraine diagnosis cause significant direct and comorbidity related excess costs in the German health care system.


CJEM ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (S1) ◽  
pp. S79-S79
Author(s):  
D. Rusiecki ◽  
S. Douglas ◽  
C. Bell

Introduction: Point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) is an integral tool in the modern emergency physician's toolkit. Evidence suggests many imaging and lab investigations are ordered without true medical indications; it is unknown how POCUS utilization impacts health care costs at a patient level. The purpose of this study was to assess whether POCUS use in the emergency department (ED) was associated with cost savings via decreased laboratory and radiographic testing. Methods: POCUMON is a single-center, prospective pilot study. The participants were a convenience sample of ED staff physicians and PGY-5 Emergency Medicine (EM) residents working in the ED from July-October 2019. Physicians who used POCUS as part of their assessment had the cost of their patient investigation plans compared with those proposed by a control group of ED physicians simultaneously on-shift. The control group was blinded to the POCUS findings but had access to the patient and medical record. The lab investigations and imaging studies ordered by both groups were recorded with respective costs. Data were analyzed using a paired T-test, with sub-group analyses. Ethics approval was obtained from the Queen's University HSREB (No.6026732). Results: 50 patient assessments using POCUS were captured in the study period. 76% of patient assessments were performed by EM staff physicians; 94% of control assessments were provided by EM staff physicians. Patient chief complaints included abdominal pain (7), chest pain/dyspnea (10), flank pain (3), pregnancy concerns (4), trauma (7), extremity complaints (4), back pain (3), and other (12). The POCUS group had a trend for lower number of laboratory tests (4.7 ± 0.44 vs 5.22 ± 0.39; p = 0.28) and imaging studies (0.94 ± 0.14 vs 1.1 ± 0.11; p = 0.33). Overall health care costs were similar in both groups, with a trend to cost savings in the POCUS group ($142.00 ± 15.44 vs $174.60 ± 17.00; p = 0.12). Subgrouping identified significant cost savings in the POCUS group for patients with a chief complaint of flank pain ($43.64 vs $248.82, p = 0.01). Conclusion: POCUS use was not associated with significant health care cost savings. ED POCUS usage did see a trend towards decreased laboratory and imaging investigations. Patients presenting with flank pain had significantly lower expenditures associated with their visit when POCUS was incorporated into their assessment. Large scale prospective studies are needed to investigate if POCUS is associated with cost-savings in ED patients.


2019 ◽  
Vol 40 (Supplement_1) ◽  
Author(s):  
J S Bundgaard ◽  
U M Mogensen ◽  
S Christensen ◽  
U M Ploug ◽  
R Roerth ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Heart failure (HF) imposes a large burden on the individual as well as society and the aim of this study was to investigate the economic burden attributed to direct and indirect costs of patients with HF before, at, and after time of diagnosis. Methods Using Danish nationwide registries we identified all patients >18 years with a first-time diagnosis of HF from 1998–2016 and matched them 1:1 with a control group from the background population on age, gender, marital status, and educational level. The economic analysis of the total costs after diagnosis was based on direct costs including hospitalization, procedures, medication, and indirect costs including social welfare and lost productivity to estimate the annual cost of HF. Results We included a total of 176,067 HF patients with a median age of 76 years, and 55% were male. Patients with HF incurred an average of €17,039 in sum of total annual direct (€11,926) and indirect (€5,113) health-care costs peaking at year of diagnosis compared to €5,936 in the control group with the majorityattributable to inpatient admissions. The total annual net costs including social transfer after index HF were €11,957 higher in patients with HF compared to controls and the economic consequences increased markedly 2 years prior to the diagnosis of HF (Figure 1). Conclusion Patients with HF impose significantly higher total annual health-care costs compared to a matched control group with findings evident more than 2 years prior to HF diagnosis Acknowledgement/Funding Novartis


2014 ◽  
Vol 32 (30_suppl) ◽  
pp. 12-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lincoln Nadauld ◽  
Bryce Perkins ◽  
Gary Stone ◽  
Heather Gilbert ◽  
Brian P. Tudor ◽  
...  

12 Background: Personalized genomic cancer medicine is an approach that has long shown efficacy in molecularly-defined subsets of breast and lung cancers, amongst others, but has not been employed more broadly, in part, due to limitations in testing technologies. Recent advances in genomic technologies have increasingly alleviated these constraints, thereby enabling precision cancer medicine. Data regarding the quality outcomes of patients treated with precision cancer medicine is an important next step along the path to widespread employment of this approach. Methods: We performed an IRB-approved retrospective analysis evaluating the use of targeted therapies matched to patients’ molecular aberrations as determined by genomic testing and recommended by a Molecular Tumor Board (MTB). This study assessed whether a detailed molecular profile of advanced solid malignancies including, but not limited to, the lung, gastrointestinal tract, bladder, prostate, ovary, uterus and skin, that were subsequently treated with matched targeted therapies resulted in improvements in three quality outcome measures: 1) Progression Free Survival (PFS), 2) treatment related morbidity, and 3) cost of treatment. Results: Preliminary results of the cohort analysis suggest that the costs associated with genomic targeted therapy are comparable to standard therapies; however, the costs of treatment related morbidities is significantly lower for patients receiving genomic cancer medicine compared to standard chemotherapy approaches. In line with these findings, overall treatment related morbidities are significantly reduced in the genomic cancer medicine cohort compared to a control cohort. Data regarding the Progression Free Survival are pending at the time of this report. Conclusions: These retrospective data suggest that personalized genomic cancer medicine approaches result in decreased morbidities and cost savings compared to standard chemotherapeutic approaches. In patients with advanced cancer, genomic-based treatments appear to be cost-effective, safe and viable option for treating advanced cancer patients. Additional data regarding survival outcomes are required to determine efficacy of treatment.


2015 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Barry A. Bunting ◽  
Deepika Nayyar ◽  
Christine Lee

This study was designed to add to the body of knowledge gained through the original Asheville Project studies, and to address some of the limitations of the earlier studies. Scalability. Since the original Asheville Project publications there have been some successful replications, however, there is a need to broaden the geographic scope and increase the size of the study population. Study Design. Previous studies were limited to pre-post, self-as-control design. We added a control group. Model improvement. We were able to incorporate an electronic record of care. This allows incorporation of medical and prescription claims, ease of documentation, improved data capture, reporting, standardization of care, identification of deficiencies in care, and communication with other health care providers. This enhancement may be worthy of more comment than we devoted to it , however, we didn’t want to detract from the main goal of the study, and we wanted to avoid any hint of commercialization on the part of the organization that provided the electronic record. Relevance to profession. We sincerely hope the relevance goes beyond the profession of pharmacy and that it reinforces the message that the profession of pharmacy offers real solutions to rising health care costs in the U.S.   Type: Original Research


2018 ◽  
Vol 75 (3) ◽  
pp. 549-559 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julene K Johnson ◽  
Anita L Stewart ◽  
Michael Acree ◽  
Anna M Nápoles ◽  
Jason D Flatt ◽  
...  

Abstract Objectives To test effects of the Community of Voices choir intervention on the health, well-being, and health care costs of racial/ethnically diverse older adults. Method Twelve Administration-on-Aging-supported senior centers were cluster randomized into two groups: the intervention group started the choir immediately and a wait-list control group began the choir 6 months later. The choir program was designed for community-dwelling adults aged 60 years and older. The multimodal intervention comprises activities that engage participants cognitively, physically, and socially. Outcome measures assessed these three domains as well as health care utilization and costs. The intention-to-treat comparison was at 6 months. Results The sample (N = 390) had a mean age of 71.3 years (SD = 7.2); 65% were nonwhite. Six-month retention was 92%. Compared to controls, intervention group members experienced significantly greater improvements in loneliness (p = .02; standardized effect size [ES = 0.34] and interest in life (p = .008, ES = 0.39). No significant group differences were observed for cognitive or physical outcomes or for health care costs. Discussion Findings support adoption of community choirs for reducing loneliness and increasing interest in life among diverse older adults. Further efforts need to examine the mechanisms by which engagement in choirs improves aspects of well-being and reduces health disparities among older adults, including potential longer-term effects. ClinicalTrials.gov Registration NCT01869179 registered January 9, 2013.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document