Lower Acquisition Costs Research Articles

Cross-sectional and longitudinal Biomarker extraction and analysis for multicentre FLAIR brain MRI

Fluid-attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR) MRI has emerged as an important sequence for the analysis of cerebrovascular (CVD) and Alzheimer's disease (AD). Large-scale, automated cross-sectional and longitudinal cerebral biomarker extraction from FLAIR datasets could progress disease characterization, improve disease monitoring, and help to determine optimal intervention times. Despite this, most automated biomarker extraction algorithms are designed for T1-weighted or multi-modal inputs. In this work, automated tools were used to extract biomarkers from large, FLAIR-only datasets to evaluate the feasibility of this sequence to characterize healthy, AD, and CVD subjects in a similar manner to traditional approaches. Total brain volume (TBV), cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) volume, and white matter lesion (WML) volume was measured for the cross-sectional biomarkers and the corresponding annual rates of change over multiple scans represented the longitudinal biomarkers. Biomarkers were extracted from two dementia cohorts (4356 vol, 162 233 images) and one vascular disease cohort (869 vol, 42 850 images) using deep learning-based segmentation algorithms designed specifically for FLAIR. Biomarkers from all cohorts were summarized using descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, and ANCOVA to assess differences in diagnostic labels while accounting for demographic and acquisition factors. Biomarkers from FLAIR MRI had similar trends with those extracted from traditional modalities in the literature for characterizing healthy, AD, and CVD subjects. This demonstrates that FLAIR MRI can be used for end-to-end analysis of large AD and CVD datasets, which can lower acquisition costs, simplify clinical translation, and reduce measurement error associated with multi-modal approaches.

Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems to Identify Pests and Diseases in Forest Species: The global state of the art and future challenges

Remotely piloted aircraft systems (RPASs) have versatility of use and allow the attainment of images with high spatial resolution and low acquisition cost. Forestry researchers have a growing interest in developing research related to the use of images obtained by RPASs aimed at monitoring forest health.

Lightweight Pixel-Wise Generative Robot Grasping Detection Based on RGB-D Dense Fusion

Grasping detection is one of the essential tasks for robots to achieve automation and intelligence. The existing grasp detection mainly relies on data-driven discriminative and generative strategies. Generative strategies have significant advantages over discriminative strategies in terms of efficiency. RGB and Depth data are widely used in grasping data sources due to the sufficient amount of information and low cost of acquisition. RGB-D fusion has shown advantages over only using RGB or Depth. However, existing research has mainly focused on early fusion and late fusion, which is challenging to utilize information from both modalities fully. Improving the accuracy of grasping while leveraging the knowledge of both modalities, while ensuring lightweight and real-time is crucial. Therefore, this paper proposes a pixel-wise RGB-D dense fusion method based on a generative strategy. The technique is doubly experimentally validated on public datasets and real robot platform. Accuracy rates of 98.9% and 94.0% are achieved on Cornell and Jacquard datasets, and efficiency of only 15ms is achieved for single image processing. The average success rate of the AUBO i5 robotic platform with DHAG-95 parallel gripper reached 94.0% for single-object scenes, 86.7% for three-object scenes, and 84% for five-object scenes. Our approach has outperformed existing state-of-the-art methods.

A Market-Based Approach to Facilitate the Organizational Adoption of Software Component Reuse Strategies

Despite the theoretical benefits of software component reuse (and the abundance of component-based software development on the vendor side), the adoption of component reuse strategies at the organizational level (on the client side) remains low in practice. According to research, the main barrier to advancing component-based reuse strategies into a robust industrial process is coordination failure between software producers and their customers, which result in high acquisition costs for customers. We introduce a component reuse licensing model and combine it with a dynamic price discovery mechanism to better coordinate producers’ capabilities and customer needs. Using an economic experiment with 28 IT professionals, we investigate the extent to which organizations may be able to leverage component reuse for performance improvements. Our findings suggest that implementing component reuse can assist organizations in addressing the issue of coordination failure with software producers while also lowering acquisition costs. We argue that similar designs can be deployed in practice and deliver benefits to software development in organizations and the software industry.

High-precision 1D distance monitoring with radar data

ABSTRACT A measurement setup based on a high-precision, low-cost FMCW radar sensor has been developed for radar-based 1D deformation monitoring of engineering structures. The method enables contactless and time-continuous scans, but has lower acquisition costs compared to commercially available terrestrial laser and radar technologies. The article contains the instrument-related description of the sensor with accuracy tests for 1D distance measurements on a laboratory scale as well as a case study for monitoring the movements of a headframe over the course of the day. The detectability of deformations was statistically verified by means of a hypothesis test and applied to the case study under real conditions. With a defined target object (corner reflector), measuring accuracies of up to 10 μm with a 99,7% confidence level could be achieved. The case study shows absolute movements of the headframe during the day of 1 mm. Changes of 0,2 mm can be detected in time intervals of 9 min with a statistical significance level of 95%. Abbreviations : CA-CFAR: Cell-averaging constant false alarm rate; CR-I, CR-II: Corner reflectors; CUT: Cell Under Test; DFT: Discrete Fourier transformation; EXP: Experiment; FMCW: Frequency-modulated continuous-wave; iSDR-C:indurad ScanningDynamicRadar-Compact; LOD: Limit of detection; PI: Peak interpolation

Cost-Effectiveness of iGlarLixi Versus iDegLira in Type2 Diabetes Mellitus Inadequately Controlled by GLP-1 Receptor Agonists and Oral Antihyperglycemic Therapy.

IntroductionThe fixed-ratio combinations (FRCs) of glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor agonists (GLP-1 RAs) and basal insulin, insulin glargine 100 U/mL plus lixisenatide (iGlarLixi), and insulin degludec plus liraglutide (iDegLira), have demonstrated safety and efficacy in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) inadequately controlled on GLP-1 RAs. However, a comparative cost-effectiveness analysis between these FRCs from a UK Health Service perspective has not been conducted.MethodsThe IQVIA Core Diabetes Model was used to estimate lifetime costs and outcomes in patients with T2DM receiving iGlarLixi (based on the LixiLan-G trial) versus iDegLira (based on relative treatment effects from an indirect treatment comparison using data from DUAL III). Utilities, medical costs, and costs of diabetes-related complications were derived from literature. Model outputs included costs and quality-adjusted life years (QALYs). Incremental cost-effectiveness ratios were calculated with a local willingness-to-pay threshold of £20,000 per QALY. Extensive scenario, one-way sensitivity, and probabilistic sensitivity analyses were conducted to evaluate the robustness of the model.ResultsiGlarLixi was less costly (iGlarLixi, £30,011; iDegLira, £40,742), owing to lower acquisition costs, and similar in terms of QALYs gained (iGlarLixi, 8.437; iDegLira, 8.422). Extensive scenario and sensitivity analyses supported the base case findings.ConclusionIn patients with T2DM and inadequate glycemic control despite GLP-1 RAs, use of iGlarLixi was associated with substantial cost savings and comparable utility outcomes. iGlarLixi can be considered as cost-effective versus iDegLira from the UK Health Service perspective.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s13300-021-01156-1.

Assessment of rituximab-abbs, a biosimilar, and rituximab outcomes in patients with CLL or NHL: A real-world UK study

BackgroundRituximab (chimeric anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody) treatment is approved for chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL). Rituximab-abbs (first biosimilar approved in 2017) is expected to significantly reduce healthcare economic burden due to lower acquisition costs. This non-interventional, non-comparative study assessed real-world effectiveness and tolerability of rituximab-abbs and rituximab in treatment-naive patients with CLL or NHL. Materials and methodsVia an online physician survey, 46 UK-registered hematologists and oncologists retrospectively reported on randomly selected patients aged ≥18 years with CLL or NHL with rituximab-abbs or rituximab as first-line immunotherapy. Overall, 201 patient charts were examined across 4 cohorts: rituximab-abbs in CLL, rituximab-abbs in NHL, rituximab in CLL, rituximab in NHL. ResultsDemographic profiles across cohorts were similar. Most patients (94 %–100 %) received combination therapy (rituximab-abbs or rituximab mainly with chemotherapy). For both treatments, overall response rate (94 %–98 %) and 1-year overall survival (98 %–100 %) were very high for patients with CLL or NHL. Most common serious adverse events were neutropenia, fatigue, anemia and infusion reactions. The majority of patients (54 %–66 %) did not experience a grade ≥3 adverse event. Healthcare resource utilization was similarly high across cohorts, driven by diagnostic testing, oncologist office visits, and day-case hospital admissions; many patients required supportive medical therapies. Mean annual savings of ∼£1000/patient driven by acquisition costs occurred with rituximab-abbs versus rituximab, administration costs were similar. ConclusionRituximab-abbs and rituximab demonstrated similar effectiveness and tolerability in treating CLL and NHL in routine UK clinical practice and demonstrate the utility of the biosimilar as a cost-saving alternative treatment.

Supplementing transportation data sources with targeted marketing data: Applications, integration, and internal validation

Unlike many third-party data sources, targeted marketing (TM) data constitute holistic datasets, with disaggregate variables – ranging from socioeconomic and demographic characteristics to attitudes, propensities, and behaviors – available for most individuals in the population. These qualities, along with ease of accessibility and relatively low acquisition costs, make TM data an attractive source for the supplementation of traditional transportation survey data, which are facing growing threats to quality. This paper develops a typology demonstrating ways in which TM data can aid in the design of transport studies, as well as in the augmentation of modeling efforts and policy scenarios, allowing for improved understanding and forecasting of travel-related attributes. However, challenges associated with integrating, validating, and understanding TM variables have resulted in only a few transportation studies that have used these data thus far. In this paper, we provide a transportation discipline-specific resource for TM data, informed by our integration of an extensive TM database with both the National Household Travel Survey (Georgia subset) and a statewide travel behavior survey conducted in Georgia on behalf of the Georgia Department of Transportation. Using the resultant datasets, we validate TM data by means of several approaches, and find that the TM dataset reports gender, age, tenure, race, marital status, and household size with match rates ranging from 70% to 90% relative to both transportation surveys. However, we also identify biases in favor of population segments that may have more longstanding financial/transactional records (e.g., males, homeowners, non-minorities, and older individuals), biases comparable but not identical to those of survey data. While this work suggests wide-ranging implications for the use of TM data in transportation, we caution that flexible and responsible approaches to using these data are critical for staying abreast of evolving privacy regulations that govern third-party data sources such as these.

RotoMate: An open-source, 3D printed autosampler for use with benchtop nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometers

Benchtop nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectrometers are versatile analytic instruments with low acquisition and operation cost. However, in the basic version, samples must be manually measured one after the other. We herein describe the open-source autosampler RotoMate that allows the automated operation of such instruments. The hardware is easily assembled from 3D-printed and inexpensive off-the-shelf parts, and is controlled by an Arduino Uno. A software package interlinks the operation of the autosampler with the software of the NMR spectrometer and the software for the processing of the spectra. Experiments for up to 30 samples can be inserted into an interactive sample list. The autosampler automatically inserts and ejects the samples, initiates measurements on the spectrometer according to parameters specified in the sample list, and interacts with a common NMR software in the processing and visualization of the obtained spectroscopic raw data. If an internal standard is present, conversions and yields of chemical reactions are automatically calculated, enabling e.g. the monitoring of reactions. The device was fitted to a Magritek Spinsolve instrument and can interact with a free academic version of ACD NMR software to process the spectra, but can likely be adapted to similar instruments and spectroscopy software packages.

PBI11 Economic Impact of Utilizing Eptacog Beta for the on-Demand Treatment of Bleeding Events Among Hemophilia Patients with Inhibitors

A mainstay of treatment in haemophilia patients with inhibitors (PWI) is recombinant Factor VIIa (rFVIIa) bypassing agent. The FDA recently approved a new rFVIIa (eptacog beta (EB)) variant that may reduce bypassing agent use for on-demand treatment of bleeding events (BEs). The aim of this study was to quantify the clinical and economic value associated with use of EB vs Coagulation rFVIIa eptacog alfa (EA), for on-demand treatment of bleeding episodes (BE) occurring in PWI. A decision analytic model was developed to compare the utilization, clinical outcomes and costs of EA and EB among hemophilia PWI utilizing on-demand treatment of BEs over the course of one year. Treatment regimens of rFVIIa were based on prescribing information. Clinical efficacy was informed by clinical trial data. Epidemiology and costs for emergency department (ED) visits, hospital admissions, and intravenous-access (IV-access) complications were informed by literature. Drug costs were 2020 wholesale acquisition costs. In a cohort of 1 million insured males, 5 PWI annually receive on-demand treatment for 54 mild/moderate BEs. If all PWI switch from EA to EB 75μg/kg or to EB 225μg/kg for on-demand use, a health plan would reduce the total costs from $3.7million to $1.7million (54%) or to $2.3million (40%), respectively. The majority of the savings are driven by reduced drug costs of $1.7million (85%) or $1.1million (76%), from the lower acquisition costs of EB and reduced consumption by 48% or 33%, with EB 75μg/kg or 225μg/kg, respectively. The remaining savings were from reduced ED visits, hospitalizations and IV-access complications. The model suggests use of EB may reduce cost of rFVIIa from lower acquisition costs and fewer vials consumed. Additionally, fewer cases of re-bleeding or unresolved bleeding and fewer IV-accesses with EB therapy results in lower costs of ED visits, hospitalizations and IV-access complications.

Development of a Real-Time Surface Solar Radiation Measurement System Based on the Internet of Things (IoT).

The determination of the levels of solar radiation incident on the terrestrial surface (W·m−2) is essential for several areas such as architecture, agriculture, health, power generation, telecommunications, and climate forecasting models. The high cost of acquiring and maintaining radiometric equipment makes it difficult to create and expand monitoring networks. It contributes to the limited Brazilian radiometric network and affects the understanding and availability of this variable. This paper presents the development of a new surface solar radiation measurement system based on silicon photodiodes (Si) with a spectral range between 300 nm and 1400 nm incorporating Internet of Things (IoT) technology with an estimated cost of USD 200. The proposed system can provide instantaneous surface solar radiation levels, connectivity to wireless networks and an exclusive web system for monitoring data. For the sake of comparison, the results were compared with those provided by a government meteorology station (INMet). The prototype validation resulted in determination coefficients (R2) greater than 0.95 while the statistical analysis referred to the results and uncertainties for the range of ±500 kJ·m−2, less than 4.0% for the developed prototypes. The proposed system operates similarly to pyranometers based on thermopiles providing reliable readings, a low acquisition and maintenance cost, autonomous operation, and applicability in the most varied climatological and energy research types. The developed system is pending a patent at the National Institute of Industrial Property under registration BR1020200199846.

Financial impact of tepotinib for the treatment of adult patients with metastatic non-small cell lung cancer bearing METex14 skipping in the United States.

e21108 Background: MET exon 14 ( METex14) skipping is found in approximately 3% of the non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) population and is associated with poor prognoses. We estimated the financial impact to US Medicare and commercial plans of reimbursing the receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) tepotinib for adult patients with metastatic NSCLC bearing METex14 skipping. Methods: We developed an Excel-based economic model to project plan financial outlays with or without tepotinib from 2021-2023. The number of patients eligible for treatment with MET TKIs was estimated from epidemiological data, real-world evidence, and forecasted biomarker testing rates. It was assumed this population has access to other TKIs (capmatinib and crizotinib) and non-targeted standards of care, including immune checkpoint inhibitors, anti–vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) medications, and chemotherapy. It was also assumed most patients receiving tepotinib would otherwise be treated with another TKI. Efficacy and safety inputs were obtained from the Phase II VISION study (July 2020 data cut-off), published literature and prescribing information. Resource utilization and costs (2020 US dollars) were informed by online pricing databases, CMS fee schedules, Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP) and trial data, expert opinion, and publicly available sources. Results: In hypothetical Medicare and commercial plans with one million members each, an estimated 160 and 32 adult patients with metastatic NSCLC would test positive for METex14 skipping between 2021-2023, respectively. Of these, 26 Medicare and 5 commercial plan members would receive tepotinib. Introducing tepotinib reduced cumulative financial outlays by $661,379 and $151,700 for Medicare and commercial payers respectively, or $0.0061 and $0.0014 per patient per month, primarily due to lower overall drug acquisition and disease management costs relative to a treatment mix without tepotinib. Results are most sensitive to the clinical efficacy of tepotinib and capmatinib. Conclusions: Using tepotinib in adult patients with metastatic NSCLC bearing METex14 skipping is expected to have minimal financial impact on Medicare and commercial payers in the US.[Table: see text]

Evolution of searching effort for resources: a missing piece of the puzzle in the ideal free distribution paradigm

Animals commonly search for information about available resources to select a breeding or foraging site or a mate. Searching can be costly, which is why even random selection of resources may pay off. However, the evolution of searching effort in relation to key ecological factors and its ecological consequences remain insufficiently understood. We build a model to analyze the evolution of searching effort for resources in relation to key ecological factors; the cost of information acquisition, the cost of competition and the distribution of resource qualities. Evolutionarily stable searching effort decreased with increasing cost of information acquisition, eventually resulting in a random choice of resources. With a very low cost of information acquisition, evolutionarily stable searching effort increased with increasing proportion of low‐quality resources in the available resource distribution, while the opposite was predicted with a higher cost of information acquisition. Cost of competition had only a negligible effect on the evolution of searching effort, except that increasing cost of competition increased investment in information acquisition when a resource distribution was biased towards high‐quality resources. Informed resource selection (above‐zero investment in information acquisition) resulted in skewed distribution of individuals across resources. Consequently, expected fitness became more similar across resources with decreasing cost of information acquisition and associated increase in searching effort, thus approaching the prediction of the classical ideal free distribution (IFD) model stating that individuals distribute themselves so that fitness is invariant across resources. However, we predict a positive correlation between fitness and resource quality with biologically more realistic parameter values, contradicting the IFD model. Costly information acquisition may, thus, explain why IFD is not always found in empirical studies. Generally, our results imply that avoidance of poor choices is more important for the evolution of information acquisition strategies than making the very best choices.

One Hundred Years of Insulin: Value Beyond Price in Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus.

Type 2 diabetes mellitus is a chronic, progressive disease that frequently necessitates treatment with basal insulin to maintain adequate glycaemic control. In considering the value of different basal insulin therapies, although acquisition costs are of increasing importance to budget-constrained healthcare systems, value beyond simple price considerations should be taken into account. Whilst human basal insulins are of lower acquisition cost compared to long-acting insulin analogues, this difference in price has the potential to be offset in terms of total healthcare system value through the ultra-long duration of action and low variability in glucose-lowering activity which have been translated into real clinical benefits, in particular a reduced risk of hypoglycaemic events. The maintenance of glycaemic targets and avoidance of hypoglycaemia that have been associated with insulin analogues represent a significant value consideration, beyond price, for the use of basal insulin analogues to manage type 2 diabetes mellitus from the perspective of all stakeholders within the healthcare system, including payers, healthcare professionals, patients and society.

The Economic Impact of COVID-19 Treatment at a Hospital-level: Investment and Financial Registers of Brazilian Hospitals.

Background: The economic impact associated with the treatment strategies of coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) patients by hospitals and health-care systems in Brazil is unknown and difficult to estimate. This research describes the investments made to absorb the demand for treatment and the changes in occupation rates and billing in Brazilian hospitals.Methods: This research covers the initial findings of “COVID-19 hospital costs and the proposition of a bundled reimbursement strategy for the health-care system,” which includes 10 hospitals. The chief financial officer, the chief medical officer, and hospital executives of each participating hospital provided information regarding investments attributed to COVID-19 patient treatment. The analysis included variations in occupation rates and billing from 2019 to 2020 observed in each institution, and the investments for medical equipment, individual protection materials and building construction per patient treated.Results: The majority of hospitals registered a decrease in hospitalization rates and revenue from 2019 to 2020. For intensive care units (ICUs), the mean occupancy rate ranged from 88% to 83%, and for wards, it ranged from 85% to 73%. Monthly average revenue decreased by 10%. The mean hospital investment per COVID-19 inpatient was I$6800 (standard deviation 7664), with the purchase of ventilators as the most common investment. For this item, the mean, highest and lowest acquisition cost per ventilator were, respectively, I$31 468, I$48 881 and I$17 777.Conclusion: There was significant variability in acquisition costs and investments by institution for responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. These findings highlight the importance of continuing microeconomic studies for a comprehensive assessment of hospital costs. Only with more detailed analyses, will it be possible to define and drive sustainable strategies to manage and reimburse COVID-19 treatment in health-care systems.

Research on Computer Simulation Big Data Intelligent Collection and Analysis System

As a characteristic of big data, the individual data in it is no longer isolated, and the data and its underlying mechanisms have complex associations, which make all data into an indivisible whole. The dynamic generation and disappearance of data will change its original relationship and affect the overall characteristics of the data. This feature of big data makes the subject-oriented analysis methods such as data mining present limitations: the presupposition of the subject and the analysis by subject split the interaction relationship between the subjects, leading to the loss of the implicit mechanism in these relationships. Aiming at the problems of traditional network big data multi-resolution acquisition methods such as high acquisition cost, long completion time and low acquisition accuracy, a JA-va3D-based big data network multi-resolution acquisition method is proposed, and average interactive data is introduced. The extraction method estimates the power spectral density of the network data multi-resolution acquisition, and uses the ADASYN algorithm to remove the invalid multi-resolution data, and realizes the large data multi-resolution accurate acquisition. Experimental results show that the proposed method has lower acquisition cost, shorter completion time, and higher acquisition accuracy; it has certain practical value and can be widely used in various fields.

Budgetary Impact of Bendamustine Ready-to-Dilute Products in Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia and Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma to a United States Infusion Facility.

BackgroundBendamustine hydrochloride (BND HCl) is indicated for first-line treatment of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and rituximab-refractory indolent non-Hodgkin lymphoma (iNHL). There are two ready-to-dilute (RTD) formulations of BND HCl on the US market: a large-volume, long-duration infusion (BND-L) and a small-volume, short-duration infusion (BND-S). It is estimated that the shorter duration infusion could result in cost savings to infusion facilities.ObjectiveEstimate the one-year budget impact between BND-S and BND-L for use in the treatment of CLL and iNHL when all current BND-L utilization is replaced with BND-S, from the US infusion facility perspective.MethodsAn illustrative budget impact model estimated the change in costs associated with a projected increase from 50% to 100% market share for BND-S. The model included CLL and iNHL patient populations. Budgetary costs reflected facility expenditures on drug acquisition and administration based on recommended dosing for BND-S and BND-L. The base-case model assumptions and inputs were derived from scientific literature and publicly available resources. The total budget impact was calculated annually, along with the differences in per patient cost; one-way sensitivity analyses were conducted.ResultsPer-patient savings with BND-S use after the utilization shift were estimated at $2812.24 for CLL and $4769.01 for iNHL. Across both indications, the total annual incremental savings after the utilization shift were estimated at $452,209 for 250 CLL and iNHL patients in a 10,000-patient infusion facility, resulting in cost savings of $150.74 per BND HCI patient per month and $1808.84 per BND HCI patient per year. The model was sensitive to changes in proportion of patients receiving BND HCI infusions for CLL and iNHL, patient body surface area, and BND-S wholesale acquisition cost.ConclusionThis analysis estimated over $450,000 in annual savings for a 10,000-patient chemotherapy infusion facility following a utilization shift from 50% use of each RTD product to 100% use of BND-S in CLL and iNHL patients, driven by lower acquisition costs for BND-S and lower administration labor costs associated with rapid infusion.

Knowledge-Assisted Visualization of Multi-Level Origin-Destination Flows Using Ontologies

Origin-destination matrices help understand the movement of people within cities. This work is built upon the premise that stakeholders, e.g. decision makers, need to analyze mobility flows from spatio-temporal perspectives that are appropriate to their context of analysis. The data retrieved from sensors and Intelligent Transportation Systems are useful for this purpose due to their lower acquisition costs and fine granularity, although it is complex to use such data in an integrated way, as they might have heterogeneous representations of spatio-temporal attributes and granularities. Most of the related works on the analysis of OD flows consider matrices with a fixed spatio-temporal aggregation level, and do not explore the intrinsic issue of data heterogeneity. Herein we report our findings on building the semantic foundation of knowledge-assisted visualization tools for analyzing OD matrices from multiple stakeholder levels. We propose a set of ontology design patterns for modeling the semantics of OD data, and the relations between the spatio-temporal constructs that stakeholders ought to choose when visualizing urban mobility flows. Our approach aims to be reusable by researchers and practitioners. We describe a practical implementation using estimated flows from smart card data from Porto, Portugal.

Abstract PS9-68: Budget impact of Ontruzant for the treatment of breast cancer and gastric cancer in the United States

Abstract OBJECTIVES: Breast cancer is estimated to have the highest incidence among all cancers in the United States (US) in 2020. In turn, the incidence of gastric cancer is ranked fifteenth among all cancers in the US. Targeted therapies, such as trastuzumab, have drastically improved clinical outcomes for patients with over-expressive human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2+) in early-stage breast cancer (EBC) and metastatic breast cancer (MBC) as well as metastatic gastric cancer (MGC). However, due to the high cost of treatment and eligible patient population size, originator trastuzumab has caused patient affordability challenges and represents a high budget burden on payers. The objective of this study is to assess the potential financial impact associated with the use of intravenous (IV) trastuzumab biosimilar Ontruzant compared to the originator, in patients with HER2+ EBC, MBC and MGC from the US healthcare payer perspective. METHODS: A budget impact model with a 5-year time horizon was developed to compare costs ($; 2020) under scenarios with and without the entry of Ontruzant to a healthcare plan. Only direct costs were considered following a payer perspective. Drug acquisition costs were estimated based on the published wholesale acquisition cost (WAC) price. The target population consisted of incident HER2+ patients eligible to receive trastuzumab IV or subcutaneous. Epidemiological data were obtained from SEER database and Epic Oncology. Predictions on trastuzumab market share and Ontruzant uptake were based on internal market research. The model calculated the budget impact of Ontruzant by indication and across all indications. RESULTS: In a hypothetical healthcare plan with one million members, the number of incident patients treated with the trastuzumab class was estimated to range from 107 in year 1 to 100 in year 5 in HER2+ EBC and 17 to 16 in HER2+ MBC. About ten new patients with HER2+ MGC were estimated to be treated with trastuzumab or biosimilars each year in year 1 to 5. The market uptake of Ontruzant with the trastuzumab class was assumed 50% in year 1 and rising over time to 90% in year 5, which led to a total budget saving of $13,534,498 in EBC and MBC and $459,331 in MGC over the 5-year period for the healthcare plan. The model yielded an average saving of $1,859, $2,073 and $766 per treated member per month in EBC, MBC and MGC, respectively. The cost saving was mainly driven by the lower drug acquisition cost of Ontruzant compared to originator trastuzumab, as well as potential reduction of vial wastage due to the availability of Ontruzant multi-dose vials. CONCLUSIONS: Adding Ontruzant to the formulary for treatment of HER2+ breast cancer and gastric cancer and creating mechanisms to encourage providers to utilize Ontruzant instead of the reference branded agent, could lead to substantial cost-savings for the US healthcare payers; and consequently, improve access to treatments for the patients. Citation Format: Min Huang, Puneet Singhal, Reshma Shinde, Sarah K Wilkes, Nirav Nagda, Yunni Yi, Stefano Lucherini. Budget impact of Ontruzant for the treatment of breast cancer and gastric cancer in the United States [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 2020 San Antonio Breast Cancer Virtual Symposium; 2020 Dec 8-11; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2021;81(4 Suppl):Abstract nr PS9-68.

Emerging contaminants adsorption by beads from chromium (III) tanned leather waste recovered gelatin

Tannery industries generate wastes that are rich in collagen and can be used to extract the gelatin. Gelatin is a macromolecule with excellent gel formation capacity, low acquisition cost, in addition to biodegradable and hydrophobic characteristics, with an abundance of chemical groups favorable to the adsorption technique. Thus, this work aimed to produce an alternative adsorbent from gelatin extracted from chromium (III) tanned leather wastes for application to remove emerging contaminants from aqueous solutions. Tartrazine yellow dye (TYD) and diclofenac sodium (DCF) were used as experimental models. The adsorbents were produced in beads shape, by drip emulsification. Commercial gelatin beads were also prepared for comparison purposes. The beads were characterized by SEM, TGA, FTIR, and pHpzc. The beads were subjected to equilibrium, kinetics, and desorption and reuse tests. The RCTLW gelatin beads showed a maximum adsorption capacity of 263.13 and 36.65 mg.g−1, for TYD and DCF, respectively. In kinetics, the adsorption density continued to increase after 300 min for TYD and was reached in the first 80 min for DCF. Mathematical modeling suggests that TYD adsorption follows the Freundlich model, while DCF is better represented by the Langmuir model. The PFO model best predicted TYD adsorption, while for DCF, both models of PFO and PSO can describe the kinetic data. The RCTLW gelatin beads showed promise for use for up to 10 cycles without loss of adsorption capacity, ending the 10th cycle with a capacity of around 100 mg.g−1 and 45% regeneration.