Contributions
Abstract: EP1431
Type: Poster Sessions
Abstract Category: Clinical aspects of MS - Economic burden
Background: Chronic diseases like multiple sclerosis regularly come along with a live long need for care, monitoring and medication. Besides direct health-related costs, there are necessary resources that result in indirect costs of the disease. Regardless of which treatment is indicated, the economic burden of MS is always an important topic to patients, relatives, healthcare providers and agents of the healthcare system. There is no standard instrument available that comprises all MS-related costs, provides a detailed picture and a comparable sum with one take. Most health-economic studies for MS rely on system-wide estimations but miss the direct assessment of costs.
Goals: To develop a holistic but easy to administer survey (Multiple Sclerosis Health Resource Survey, MS-HRS) covering all relevant MS-related costs and required resources
Methods: An expert group consisting of neurologists, healthcare administrators, psychologists and MS nurses at the Multiple Sclerosis Centre, University Hospital Dresden developed the item pool in German between 2011 and 2014. The first version of the MS-HRS was created as addition to register-like non-interventional studies that were emerging at the time. After incorporating the feedback from patients, nurses and physicians, a second version was built in 2016 that aimed to be more time-efficient. The adaptive version of the MS-HRS in its German and translated English version is the result of the third round of development.
Results: From the original item pool with 140 cost-related questions, the first non-adaptive version of the MS-HRS was created with a total of 118 items. The time for completion ranged from 15 to 20 minutes. After an optimization with respect to cost models for MS and national healthcare regulations, the second version consisted of 68 items. After integrating the MS-HRS in an adaptive eForm in the Multiple Sclerosis Documentation System 3D, the minimal number of question needed to be answered has dropped to 23 items and the timely effort decreased to 5 to 10 minutes. All tangible costs, which had an impact on the healthcare system, were included.
Conclusions: An efficient tool to assess MS-related costs will be a valuable contribution to almost all kind of treatment-related investigations. The MS-HRS is a promising option to measure costs precisely instead of estimating them or using surrogates. In future studies, external validity will be demonstrated and country-wise cost-weights will be introduced.
Disclosure: R. Haase has received travel grants from Teva.
M. Wunderlich has nothing to disclose.
M. Dominik has nothing to disclose. K. Akgün has received personal compensation for consulting services from Biogen, Novartis, and Roche.
R. Kern has has received funding for research from Bayer-Healthcare, Biogen Idec, Genzyme, Merck Serono, Novartis and Teva.
T. Ziemssen has has received reimbursements for participation in scientific advisory boards from Bayer, Biogen, Novartis, Merck, Teva and Genzyme. He has also received speaker honorarium from Bayer, Biogen, Genzyme, Merck, Novartis, Teva, Sanofi and Almirall.
Abstract: EP1431
Type: Poster Sessions
Abstract Category: Clinical aspects of MS - Economic burden
Background: Chronic diseases like multiple sclerosis regularly come along with a live long need for care, monitoring and medication. Besides direct health-related costs, there are necessary resources that result in indirect costs of the disease. Regardless of which treatment is indicated, the economic burden of MS is always an important topic to patients, relatives, healthcare providers and agents of the healthcare system. There is no standard instrument available that comprises all MS-related costs, provides a detailed picture and a comparable sum with one take. Most health-economic studies for MS rely on system-wide estimations but miss the direct assessment of costs.
Goals: To develop a holistic but easy to administer survey (Multiple Sclerosis Health Resource Survey, MS-HRS) covering all relevant MS-related costs and required resources
Methods: An expert group consisting of neurologists, healthcare administrators, psychologists and MS nurses at the Multiple Sclerosis Centre, University Hospital Dresden developed the item pool in German between 2011 and 2014. The first version of the MS-HRS was created as addition to register-like non-interventional studies that were emerging at the time. After incorporating the feedback from patients, nurses and physicians, a second version was built in 2016 that aimed to be more time-efficient. The adaptive version of the MS-HRS in its German and translated English version is the result of the third round of development.
Results: From the original item pool with 140 cost-related questions, the first non-adaptive version of the MS-HRS was created with a total of 118 items. The time for completion ranged from 15 to 20 minutes. After an optimization with respect to cost models for MS and national healthcare regulations, the second version consisted of 68 items. After integrating the MS-HRS in an adaptive eForm in the Multiple Sclerosis Documentation System 3D, the minimal number of question needed to be answered has dropped to 23 items and the timely effort decreased to 5 to 10 minutes. All tangible costs, which had an impact on the healthcare system, were included.
Conclusions: An efficient tool to assess MS-related costs will be a valuable contribution to almost all kind of treatment-related investigations. The MS-HRS is a promising option to measure costs precisely instead of estimating them or using surrogates. In future studies, external validity will be demonstrated and country-wise cost-weights will be introduced.
Disclosure: R. Haase has received travel grants from Teva.
M. Wunderlich has nothing to disclose.
M. Dominik has nothing to disclose. K. Akgün has received personal compensation for consulting services from Biogen, Novartis, and Roche.
R. Kern has has received funding for research from Bayer-Healthcare, Biogen Idec, Genzyme, Merck Serono, Novartis and Teva.
T. Ziemssen has has received reimbursements for participation in scientific advisory boards from Bayer, Biogen, Novartis, Merck, Teva and Genzyme. He has also received speaker honorarium from Bayer, Biogen, Genzyme, Merck, Novartis, Teva, Sanofi and Almirall.