Presentation (CTI)

OBJECTIVES: As healthcare systems face increased scrutiny, there is a growing emphasis on novel aspects of product value; in parallel, there is interest in minimizing environmental impact. To demonstrate environmental value, modelling-based analyses of healthcare resource utilization is required. This research presents an initial framework that considers the potential for incorporating environmental costs alongside clinical and economic considerations.
METHODS: Secondary research and economic modelling methods were applied to develop an initial framework by collating established costing methodologies and environmental assessment models. This enabled the quantification of environmental parameters within health economic models, and presentation of a hypothetical case modelling example.
RESULTS: Environmental impact can be evaluated from a variety of perspectives/metrics, thus preliminary models incorporating environmental metrics should focus on specific outcomes of interest. To that end, this example limits the scope of environmental considerations to hospital CO2 and waste emissions, ahead of more comprehensive future modelling (and based on data availability). A hypothetical case considers chronic heart failure which is associated with acute events including myocardial infarction, cardiogenic shock, and intensive care unit (ICU) stays. A therapeutic that reduces ICU hospitalization days by 30% demonstrates a reduced environmental impact. Leveraging validated environmental footprint studies for hospital settings, the total CO2 emissions (through imputation) and waste generated (through micro costing) are considerably lower for the novel therapeutic agent, highlighting the potential of such interventions in mitigating these environmental outcomes.
CONCLUSIONS: This research highlights quantitation of environmental value in health economic models as a potential novel aspect of product value to enable holistic decision-making and resource optimization. This research demonstrates how and with what methods these parameters can be incorporated into health economic models to illustrate value. The framework and case example serve as a first step towards differentiating environmental impact as an additive element to therapeutic evaluation in the ongoing development of established methodologies.