Logo image
Prospective comparison of the cost-effectiveness of clinical whole-exome sequencing with that of usual care overwhelmingly supports early use and reimbursement
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Prospective comparison of the cost-effectiveness of clinical whole-exome sequencing with that of usual care overwhelmingly supports early use and reimbursement

Zornitza Stark, Deborah Schofield, Khurshid Alam, William Wilson, Nessie Mupfeki, Ivan Macciocca, Rupendra Shrestha, Susan M. White and Clara Gaff
Genetics in medicine, Vol.19(8), pp.867-874
2017
PMID: 28125081
url
PublishedView
Published (Version of Record) Open

Abstract

cost-effectiveness genetic testing prospective Mendelian disorders whole-exome sequencing
Purpose To undertake the first prospective cost-effectiveness study of whole-exome sequencing (WES) as an early, routine clinical test for infants with suspected monogenic disorders. Methods Cost data for diagnosis-related investigations and assessments were collected for a prospective, sequential clinical cohort of infants (N = 40) who underwent singleton WES in parallel to usual diagnostic care. We determined costs per patient, costs per diagnosis, and incremental costs per additional diagnosis for three alternative strategies for integrating WES into the diagnostic trajectory. We performed a sensitivity analysis to examine the robustness of estimates and bootstrapping (500 replications) to examine their distributions. Results Standard care achieved an average cost per diagnosis of AU$27,050 (US$21,099) compared with AU$5,047 (US$3,937) for singleton WES. If WES had been performed after exhaustive standard investigation, then there would have been an incremental cost per additional diagnosis of AU$8,112 (US$ 6,327). Using WES to replace some investigations decreases this incremental cost to AU$2,622 (US$2,045), whereas using it to replace most investigations results in a savings per additional diagnosis of AU$2,182 (US$1,702). Conclusion Use of WES early in the diagnostic pathway more than triples the diagnostic rate for one-third the cost per diagnosis, providing strong support for reimbursement as a clinical test.

Details

UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

This output has contributed to the advancement of the following goals:

#3 Good Health and Well-Being

Source: InCites

Metrics

InCites Highlights

These are selected metrics from InCites Benchmarking & Analytics tool, related to this output

Collaboration types
Domestic collaboration
Citation topics
1 Clinical & Life Sciences
1.189 Genome Studies
1.189.597 Genetic Testing
Web Of Science research areas
Genetics & Heredity
ESI research areas
Clinical Medicine
Logo image