Getting to value in neurological care: a roadmap for academic neurology

Economics of dementia: A review of methods

Given the expected increase in the number of people with dementia in the coming years, it is anticipated that the resources necessary to support those with dementia will significantly increase. There will therefore likely be increased emphasis on how best to use limited resources across a number of domains including prevention, diagnosis, treatment and supporting informal caregivers. There has been increasing use of economic methods in dementia in the past number of years, in particular, cost-of-illness analysis and economic evaluation. This paper reviews the aforementioned methods and identities a number of methodological issues that require development. Addressing these methodological issues will enhance the quality of economic analysis in dementia and provide some useful insights about the best use of limited resources for dementia.

Could EEG Monitoring in Critically Ill Children Be a Cost-effective Neuroprotective Strategy?

PURPOSE

Electrographic status epilepticus (ESE) in critically ill children is associated with unfavorable functional outcomes, but identifying candidates for ESE management requires resource-intense EEG monitoring. A cost-effectiveness analysis was performed to estimate how much ESE identification and management would need to improve patient outcomes to make EEG monitoring strategies a good value.

METHODS

A decision tree was created to examine the relationships among variables important to deciding whether to perform EEG monitoring. Variable costs were estimated from their component parts, outcomes were estimated in quality-adjusted life-years, and incremental cost-effectiveness ratios were calculated to compare the relative values using four alternative EEG monitoring strategies that varied by monitoring duration.

RESULTS

Forty-eight hours of EEG monitoring would be worth its cost if ESE identification and management improved patient outcomes by ≥7%. If ESE identification and management improved patient outcomes by 3% to 6%, then 24 or 48 hours of EEG monitoring would be worth the cost depending on how much decision makers were willing to pay per quality-adjusted life-year gained. If ESE identification and management improved outcomes by as little as 3%, then 24 hours of EEG monitoring would be worth the cost.

CONCLUSIONS

EEG monitoring has the potential to be cost-effective if ESE identification and management improves patient outcomes by as little as 3%.

Adaptation of neurological practice and policy to a changing US health-care landscape

Health care in the USA is undergoing a drastic transformation under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is driving major health-care policy changes by connecting payment for traditional health-care services to value-based care initiatives and emphasising population health and innovative mechanisms to deliver care. Under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, neurological practice will need to adapt and transform. Therefore, neurological policy should consider employing a new framework for neurological residency training, developing interdisciplinary team approaches to neurological subspecialty care, and strengthening the primary care-neurological specialty care interface to avoid redundancies and other medical waste. Additionally, neurological policy will need to support a more robust review of diagnostic and care pathway use to reduce avoidable expenditures, and test and implement bundled payments for key neurological diagnoses. In view of an anticipated 19% shortage of US neurologists in the next 10 years, development of new neurological policy under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is paramount.

How much does it cost to identify a critically ill child experiencing electrographic seizures?

OBJECTIVES

Electrographic seizures in critically ill children may be identified by continuous EEG monitoring. We evaluated the cost effectiveness of 4 electrographic seizure identification strategies (no EEG monitoring and EEG monitoring for 1 hour, 24 hours, or 48 hours).

METHODS

We created a decision tree to model the relationships among variables from a societal perspective. To provide input for the model, we estimated variable costs directly related to EEG monitoring from their component parts, and we reviewed the literature to estimate the probabilities of outcomes. We calculated incremental cost-effectiveness ratios to identify the trade-off between cost and effectiveness at different willingness-to-pay values.

RESULTS

Our analysis found that the preferred strategy was EEG monitoring for 1 hour, 24 hours, and 48 hours if the decision maker was willing to pay <$1,666, $1,666-$22,648, and >$22,648 per critically ill child identified with electrographic seizures, respectively. The 48-hour strategy only identified 4% more children with electrographic seizures at substantially higher cost. Sensitivity analyses found that all 3 strategies were acceptable at lower willingness-to-pay values when children with higher electrographic seizure risk were monitored.

CONCLUSIONS

The results of this study support monitoring of critically ill children for 24 hours because the cost to identify a critically ill child with electrographic seizures is modest. Further study is needed to predict better which children may benefit from 48 hours of EEG monitoring because the costs are much higher.

Reading a cost-effectiveness or decision analysis study: Five things to consider

Cost-effectiveness studies and decision analyses of neurologic practices, treatments, and technologies are increasing in the literature and have an emerging role within both medicine and neurology. Knowledge about these research approaches, how to interpret the results of such studies, as well as an understanding of their limitations will be of growing importance for the practicing neurologist. We discuss 5 aspects of these analyses to increase awareness about the uses and limitations of cost-effectiveness articles in everyday practice.

Mystery of chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency: identical venographic and ultrasound findings in patients with MS and controls

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

Stenosis of the internal jugular, azygos, and other veins detected by using intracranial and neck Doppler and B-mode sonography and confirmed by venography has been reported in MS with a high degree of sensitivity. This article reports the results of sonographic findings in patients with MS and controls, looking for evidence of the controversial entity chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency. Furthermore, the venographic appearance in controls is documented.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Thirty consecutive patients with definite MS and 10 controls had TCD and high-resolution Doppler sonography of the neck vessels by using the published sonography criteria of Zamboni et al. Those with 2 positive findings consented to undergo contrast digital subtraction venography for delineation of possible venous stenosis. Nine consecutive patients undergoing digital subtraction venography for petrosal venous sampling or parathormone sampling had images of their internal jugular veins obtained as part of their procedure, and they were assessed for stenosis.

RESULTS

No patient with MS or control had 2 positive sonographic findings; therefore, none were subjected to venography. Of the 9 controls undergoing venography for other reasons, 6 had bilateral IJV narrowing of ≥50%, and 2 others had unilateral narrowing.

CONCLUSIONS

No difference was detected between patients with MS and controls by using the objective sonographic criteria of Zamboni et al. Furthermore, normal physiologic narrowing is found very commonly in the internal jugular veins in healthy individuals. Nonblinded subjective sonographic assessment of the IJV may erroneously lead to venography, the findings of which may be misinterpreted due to the lack of widespread knowledge about the appearance of these veins in healthy individuals.