Cost-effectiveness of digital surveillance clinics with optical coherence tomography versus hospital eye service follow-up for patients with screen-positive maculopathy

Leal, Jose, Luengo-Fernandez, Ramon, Stratton, Irene M., Dale, Angela, Ivanova, Katerina and Scanlon, Peter H ORCID: 0000-0001-8513-710X (2019) Cost-effectiveness of digital surveillance clinics with optical coherence tomography versus hospital eye service follow-up for patients with screen-positive maculopathy. Eye, 33 (4). pp. 640-647. doi:10.1038/s41433-018-0297-7

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Abstract

Annually 2.7 million individuals are offered screening for diabetic retinopathy (DR) in England. Spectral-Domain Optical Coherence Tomography (SD-OCT) has the potential to relieve pressure on NHS services by correctly identifying patients who are screen positive for maculopathy on two-dimensional photography without evidence of clinically significant macular oedema (CSMO), limiting the number of referrals to hospitals. We aim to assess whether the addition of SDOCT imaging in digital surveillance clinics is a cost-effective intervention relative to hospital eye service (HES) follow-up. We used patient-level data from the Gloucestershire Diabetic Eye Screening Service linked to the local digital surveillance programme and HES between 2012 and 2015. A model was used to simulate the progression of individuals with background diabetic retinopathy (R1) and diabetic maculopathy (M1) following DR screening across the clinic pathways over 12 months. Between January 2012 and December 2014, 696 people undergoing DR screening were found to have screen-positive maculopathy in at least one eye for the first time, with a total of 766 eyes identified as having R1M1. The mean annual cost of assessing and surveillance through the SD-OCT clinic pathway was £101 (95% CI: 91-139) as compared with £177 (95%CI: 164-219) under the HES pathway. Surveillance under an SD-OCT clinic generated cost savings of £76 (95% CI: 70-81) per patient. Our analysis shows that SD-OCT surveillance of patients diagnosed as R1M1 at DR screening is not only cost-effective but generates considerable cost savings.

Item Type:	Article
Article Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Ophthalmology; Maculopathy; Screening
Subjects:	R Medicine > RA Public aspects of medicine > RA645.A-Z Individual diseases or groups of diseases, A-Z > RA645.D54 Diabetes R Medicine > RE Ophthalmology
Research Priority Areas:	Health, Life Sciences, Sport and Wellbeing
Depositing User:	Susan Turner
Date Deposited:	12 Dec 2018 16:11
Last Modified:	04 Feb 2022 13:45
URI:	https://eprints.glos.ac.uk/id/eprint/6301

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