Economic Impact of a Multidisciplinary Neurofibromatosis Clinic in a Canadian Tertiary Care Hospital
Objective:
The objective of this research protocol is to measure the economic impact of implementing a multidisciplinary neurofibromatosis clinic in a Canadian tertiary care hospital.
Background:
Neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) is associated with a wide range of complications, such as psychological and physical pain due to neurofibromas and other tumors, increased risk of malignancy, neuropsychiatric comorbidities, unemployment, impaired quality of life, and reduced life expectancy. Consequently, NF1 patients require close monitoring from a number of specialists including neuro-oncologists, neurosurgeons, geneticists, and endocrinologists. Multidisciplinary clinics provide numerous advantages, such as increased access to care and reductions in no-show rates, and have been proven cost-effective in multiple clinical contexts. However, there have been no studies on the economic impact of multidisciplinary neurofibromatosis clinics.
Design/Methods:
We will perform a cost-effectiveness analysis of the Centre Hospitaliser de l'Université de Montréal (CHUM) multidisciplinary neurofibromatosis clinic, Quebec, Canada during a five-year period since its implementation in 2021. We will determine the cost of illness linked with NF1 in our province using a bottom-up cost estimation approach. We will then estimate the clinic-associated costs using administrative databases. Patients visiting the clinic will periodically answer a battery of questionnaires measuring the impact of their disease on quality of life, which will allow us to determine the quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs) gained from the intervention. We will determine the economic benefit of our clinic by combining total costs and QALY gains and comparing them to the estimated cost of illness. We will perform a sensitivity analysis to assess the validity of our results.
Conclusions:
This is the first study protocol assessing the economic impact of multidisciplinary medical care for NF1 patients. We hypothesize that this intervention is cost-effective and will positively impact the overall wellbeing of the NF1 population in our region.