PRO14 Healthcare Resource Utilisation and Costs Saved with Earlier Diagnosis of Behcets Disease: Using UK Primary Care Electronic Health Records

Abstract

To quantify the direct medical cost of achieving an earlier diagnosis of Behcet’s disease (BD) with a digital health tool, from a payer perspective. 501,188 primary care electronic health records (EHRs) were scanned and 44 patients identified with the diagnostic code for BD (SNOMED CT code: 310701003). Using a digital health tool, six BD patients could be identified on average 3.7 (2- 7) years earlier. We analysed the EHRs of the 44 BD patients with at least 3 years of EHR entries before the first diagnosis (n=32). We examined the codes related to laboratory tests, clinical visits, referrals, and primary care interventions(medications & procedures) possibly attributed to BD. Cost data from the NHS National tariff 2020/21 and private care tariff were applied to the identified codes to calculate the direct medical costs incurred in the 3 years before diagnosis. Total healthcare resource utilisation associated with BD for the 32 study patients in the 3 years before diagnosis was 452 laboratory tests, 128 clinical visits, 66 referrals and 4 interventions. This equates to a total direct medical cost of £17,125 in primary care and an average cost of £535 (£0-£2,242) per patient. The average costs per patient in the year before diagnosis was £245 (£0-£1,077), and in the second and third years before diagnosis was £140 (£0-£570) and £150 (£0- £673) respectively. This study demonstrates the use of EHRs as an approach to measure the potential economic burden of diagnostic delay in diseases with low prevalence in the UK. Digital health tools can result in potential cost-savings in primary care through early diagnosis of BD.