Economic and clinical impact of alternative disease management strategies for secondary prevention in type 2 diabetes in the Swiss setting.

PRINCIPLES: Different intervention strategies for the optimisation of disease management of diabetes exist and have been shown to increase the proportion of patients receiving screening and examinations and to improve risk factors such as HbA1c, lipids, and blood pressure. Thus, in the long-term, a decrease in diabetic complications and the associated costs could be expected. To address this question, the current analysis used a published diabetes simulation model to analyse the long-term clinical and economic implications of implementing various interventions in the Swiss setting. METHODS: Based on data from the literature, the short-term effects on clinical variables of multifactorial interventions, including screening for nephropathy and retinopathy, educational programmes and control of cardiovascular risk profile were assessed, and a cost-effectiveness analysis in comparison to standard care was performed. Life expectancy (LE) and total lifetime costs (TC) from the perspective of the health insurance payer were calculated using a long-term Markov simulation model. RESULTS: The multifactorial intervention led to an improvement in undiscounted LE of 0.56 years (LE = 10.73 and 11.29 years for standard care and multifactorial intervention respectively), and a reduction in 3%-discounted TC of CHF 7313 (10.7%) per patient compared to current standard practice. Extrapolation to the whole Swiss type 2 diabetes population (285,000) showed yearly cost savings of CHF 194 million from the multifactorial intervention. CONCLUSIONS: The implementation of multifactorial interventions, including improved control of cardiovascular risk factors, combined with early diagnosis and treatment of diabetic complications, could be both cost- and life-saving in the Swiss setting.

Is it worth treating fever in intensive care unit patients? Preliminary results from a randomized trial of the effect of external cooling.

BACKGROUND: Antipyresis is a common clinical practice in intensive care, although it is unknown if fever is harmful, beneficial, or a negligible adverse effect of infection and inflammation. METHODS: In a randomized study, rectal temperature and discomfort were assessed in 38 surgical intensive care unit patients without neurotrauma or severe hypoxemia and with fever (temperature >/=38.5 degrees C) and systemic inflammatory response syndrome. Eighteen patients received external cooling while 20 received no antipyretic treatment. RESULTS: Temperature and discomfort decreased similarly in both groups after 24 hours. No significant differences in recurrence of fever, incidence of infection, antibiotic therapy, intensive care unit and hospital length of stay, or mortality were noted between the groups. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that the systematic suppression of fever may not be useful in patients without severe cranial trauma or significant hypoxemia. Letting fever take its natural course does not seem to harm patients with systemic inflammatory response syndrome or influence the discomfort level and may save costs.

[Increased clinical and economic advantages using PROSIT (proteinuria screening and intervention) in type 2 diabetic patients]. / Erhöhter klinischer und wirtschaftlicher Nutzen durch PROSIT (Proteinurie Screening und Intervention) bei Typ 2 diabetischen Patienten.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Even though there are simple and cost-effective means for the early diagnosis of diabetic nephropathy, only a small proportion of diabetics in Germany is regularly tests for microalbuminuria. On the basis of evidence-based knowledge and of international guidelines the PROSIT project (proteinuria screening and intervention) aims to make good this deficiency in the German Federal Republic by introducing nephropathy screening and a structured intervention to improve blood sugar and blood pressure regulation, optimizing lipid metabolism and nutritional intake. It was the aim of this study to assess with a computer-aided diabetes model the clinical value and cost-effectiveness of such an intervention. PATIENTS AND METHODS: From data collected for 589 diabetics who participated in the PROSIT project, the short-time effects after one year on HbA1c, systolic blood pressure and lipid levels were obtained and cost-effectiveness compared with that of standard care. Life expectancy, life-time costs to be met by health insurance and event frequency of the diabetic nephropathy stages were calculated with a Markov model for type 2 diabetics. RESULTS: PROSIT improved individual life expectancy by 0.23 years with reduction of life-time costs by DM 9,772 (ca. $4,900). The cumulative incidence of microalbuminuria was lowered by 30.5%, that of terminal renal failure by 55.9%. Even after discounting the results (i.e. the inclusion of time preference for cost and benefit) and stepwise changes of all variables by +/- 10%, PROSIT remained the more cost-effective variant. CONCLUSION: From a health economy viewpoint PROSIT is superior to standard management. Early recognition of albuminuria and the introduction of a multifactorial treatment strategy make it possible to delay progression to terminal renal failure. In addition to its clinical benefits, prevention of dialysis and transplantation would reduce the annual savings of the health care system by several billion DM.

Outline of a diabetes disease management model: principles and applications.

A complex interactive computer model was developed to determine the health outcomes and economic consequences of different diabetes interventions for user-defined observation periods. The interventions include intensive or conventional insulin therapy, different oral hypoglycaemic medications, different screening and treatment strategies for micro-vascular complications, different treatment strategies for end-stage complications, or multi-factorial interventions. The analyses can be performed on different sub-groups of type 1 and 2 diabetic patients, defined in terms of age, gender, baseline risk factors and pre-existing complications. The model performs real-time simulations. Full on-screen documentation of the model structure, logic, calculations and data sources is available to maximize the model's transparency. Economic and clinical data used in the disease management model are editable by the user, allowing the input of new data as they become available, the creation of country-specific, HMO-specific, or provider-specific versions of the model, and the exploration of new hypotheses ('what-if' analyses). The approach used allows maximum flexibility, adaptability, and transparency within the model structure. For the user-defined patient cohorts and intervention strategies the diabetes disease management model compares life expectancy, expected incidence and prevalence of complications as well as expected life-time (or shorter) treatment cost. Diabetes and complication management strategies can be compared in different patient populations in a variety of realistic clinical settings. The model allows extrapolation of results obtained from relatively short-term clinical trials to longer-term medical outcomes, and from trial populations to real-life populations providing a tangible yardstick to judge the quality of diabetes care. The model was used to evaluate diabetes care options in Germany, France, Switzerland, UK and US.