An Early Cost-Effectiveness Model for a Digital Community-Based Approach for Streamlined Audiology Care
Author(s)
Trishal Boodhna, PhD.
Independent, London, United Kingdom.
Independent, London, United Kingdom.
OBJECTIVES: Current audiology services in the UK struggle to provide efficient, sustainable hearing care models, prompting new community-based approaches. Tympa Health have developed a healthcare assessment device to address diagnoses challenges by combining three different diagnostic and treatment tools into a singular system, enabling faster access to hearing healthcare. We developed an early, Markov-based cost effectiveness model to assess the potential value of an audiology pathway using Tympa Health rather than the standard of care (SoC) strategy based on the perspective of National Health Service (NHS) England and Wales.
METHODS: The model directly compared the pathway strategy of Tympa Health to that of SoC and followed a hypothetical 50-year-old cohort until death. The health states of the model were based on hearing health, defined by whether patients had a hearing problem or not, and whether that hearing problem was correctly or incorrectly diagnosed through screening. Both pathways were assumed to have the same sensitivity and specificity of screening. In the Tympa Health pathway, screening is conducted immediately by a community pharmacist and then digitally reviewed, whereas in the SoC pathway it is performed later by an audiologist.
RESULTS: The basecase analysis identified the Tympa Health pathway to be dominant compared to SoC across all time horizons. The Tympa Health pathway remained the dominant strategy when the screening sensitivity and specificity of SoC was set to 100%, and when the basecase annual incidence of hearing loss was halved.
CONCLUSIONS: Our results demonstrate the cost-effectiveness of an audiology pathway that uses Tympa Health instead of SoC, through delivery of incremental savings and modest quality of life related improvements. While we recommend a future randomised control trial to assess the effect of the Tympa Health pathway relative to SoC, our findings provide valuable insights into the potential benefits of the an audiology pathway that uses Tympa Health.
METHODS: The model directly compared the pathway strategy of Tympa Health to that of SoC and followed a hypothetical 50-year-old cohort until death. The health states of the model were based on hearing health, defined by whether patients had a hearing problem or not, and whether that hearing problem was correctly or incorrectly diagnosed through screening. Both pathways were assumed to have the same sensitivity and specificity of screening. In the Tympa Health pathway, screening is conducted immediately by a community pharmacist and then digitally reviewed, whereas in the SoC pathway it is performed later by an audiologist.
RESULTS: The basecase analysis identified the Tympa Health pathway to be dominant compared to SoC across all time horizons. The Tympa Health pathway remained the dominant strategy when the screening sensitivity and specificity of SoC was set to 100%, and when the basecase annual incidence of hearing loss was halved.
CONCLUSIONS: Our results demonstrate the cost-effectiveness of an audiology pathway that uses Tympa Health instead of SoC, through delivery of incremental savings and modest quality of life related improvements. While we recommend a future randomised control trial to assess the effect of the Tympa Health pathway relative to SoC, our findings provide valuable insights into the potential benefits of the an audiology pathway that uses Tympa Health.
Conference/Value in Health Info
2025-11, ISPOR Europe 2025, Glasgow, Scotland
Value in Health, Volume 28, Issue S2
Code
EE45
Topic
Economic Evaluation, Health Service Delivery & Process of Care
Disease
Sensory System Disorders (Ear, Eye, Dental, Skin)