HELPPFL
Health-economic evaluations of prevention policies in Flanders.
Public health professionals are increasingly confronted with rising healthcare costs, constrained budgets and shrinking funds. By comparing expected health gains and implementation costs, economic evaluations can help to explicate which potential investments could be made to optimize the health and wellbeing of the population within the available budget.
The ‘health economic evaluations of preventive healthcare’ - project (preliminary project title) focuses on the cost-effectiveness of different preventive strategies in the Flanders community and region of Belgium. Using both systematic literature reviews and decision analytic modelling techniques we will investigate which specific preventive strategies are most cost-effective and should receive priority in health policy development. The four-year research project is funded by the Flemish Agency for Care and Health (Vlaams Agentschap voor Zorg en Gezondheid) and carried out at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel in conjunction with the Universiteit Gent and the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven.
Contact persons of the project: Max Lelie & Bo Vandenbulcke
SmartQi
The societal benefit of markerless stereotactic body radiotherapy-project allows a collaboration between various research domains, such as radiotherapy, radiology, biostatistics and health economics. Primarily, the focus will be set on new and improved approaches in radiotherapeutic treatment.
The role of I-CHER in this project is to foster value-based health care and researching the impact on hospitals and society in general. Within this project, a Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing (TDABC) approach based on the model of Kaplan and Anderson will be applied in order to achieve a deeper understanding of the cost of care delivery and cost control. Furthermore, a socio-economic evaluation will be executed, accounting for the costs and benefits for health service providers as well as an analysis where the societal perspective is adopted.
Contact persons of the project: Eva Kimpe & Sara-Lise Busschaert
HeaRTWise
The HeaRTWise (Health Economic Analysis of Return To Work and societal cost of cardiovascular diseases) -project aims to improve patient-specific prognoses for occupational outcomes following Cardiovasular diseases (CVDs).
CVDs are leading causes of death and disability globally, and return-to-work (RTW) is a crucial rehabilitation goal to reduce the burden of CVDs and associated costs. To identify predictors of RTW, machine learning (ML) techniques are applied on combined patient-level administrative data on health, occupational, and sociodemographic characteristics. The HeaRTWise project introduces a Bayesian extension of ML techniques that also incorporates data from smaller subsets of the population, providing a robust method for developing a prediction model. This innovative approach offers a unique opportunity to improve the accuracy of RTW prediction models, which can provide clear leads to enhance rehabilitation plans for CVD survivors and lead to significant cost savings associated with productivity loss.
Contact person of the project: Ellen Tisseghem
HEALTH PFAS
Health Economic Analysis and Long Term impact on Humans of PFAS, a Flemish Assessment Study
In recent years, extensive research has been conducted on the health effects of PFAS contamination. Our research aims to assess the health impact caused by PFAS in Flanders and calculate the associated direct and indirect costs.
The study consists of three components, with I-CHER focusing on the second component. Firstly, a risk assessment is conducted regarding the environmental health attention area. Using dose-response relationships, a risk assessment is performed for a number of predefined health endpoints. The second component involves conducting cost-of-illness studies and attributable budget impact assessments. Finally, a legal analysis is conducted to explore reimbursable alternatives.
Contact person of the project: Zoë Vandamme
REBRAIN
The REBRAIN project aims to make accurate predictions about the probability of different employment outcomes, one year after traumatic brain injury. As prospective data collection is very resource intensive, it should be assessed whether routinely collected data can be used for the creation of personalized predictions. This project applies recent data science techniques to create a prediction model using big data on hospital stay, healthcare utilization and employment, which are linked at an individual level. Additional data collection with an extended item set enables the evaluation of the added value of prospective data as opposed to routinely collected data. The predictions resulting from this research can be applied to inform patients, but also clinicians and policymakers on how to optimize current practices regarding the trajectory towards reinstatement. REBRAIN is funded by the Flemish Research Foundation (FWO) and the Fund BENEVERMEDEX (managed by the King Baudouin Foundation).
Contact person of the project: Helena Van Deynse
BRILIANT
The BRILIANT project uses a large set of administrative big data to overcome the problem of sample size that causes the lack of research on pediatric traumatic brain injury. Thereby, unexplained variability in care trajectories can be addressed in order to improve quality of care for this population. This project describes the population of brain injured children with epidemiological data. BRILIANT aims to capture care trajectories in statistical models and predict them based on patient and injury characteristics. Furthermore, it utilizes a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods to identify modifiable barriers and facilitators to have access to adequate care services. Thus, actions points on health policy for the assessment and improvement of quality of care can be identified. BRILIANT holds the financial support of the Fund Jeanne & Alice Van de Voorde (managed by the King Baudouin Foundation).
Contact person of the project: Viktor-Jan De Deken
PIANISSIMO
Pianissimo is a three-arm multicenter randomized controlled trial to evaluate whether an opioid tapering program before spinal cord stimulation (SCS) implantation is more effective in reducing disability after 12 months in patients with Persistent Spinal Pain Syndrome Type II who are scheduled for SCS implantation compared with usual care. Two different tapering programs are evaluated in this project.
The Pianissimo project is an interdisciplinary research project combining expertise in neurosurgery and pain medicine, epidemiology and statistics, health services research and psychiatry. More details on the project can be found at: https://stimulus.research.vub.be/en/pianissimo
Within this project researchers of I-CHER focus on the societal and health economic impact of the trial. For example, differences in healthcare expenditure, indirect costs and quality of life are investigated.
This project is funded by FWO-TBM (Research Foundation Flanders -Applied Biomedical Research with a Primary Social finality)
Contact person of the project: Frenn Bultinck
Opera
Current post-operative interventions are seemingly not effective to achieve return to work after Spinal Cord Stimulation (SCS) implantation for patients suffering from therapy-refractory persistent spinal pain syndrome type II (PSPS-T2). Despite evidence that SCS can improve RTW, only 9.5 to 14% of patients implanted with SCS are make a successful return to work. This is where the OPERA trial finds it's objective: to examine whether a personalised biopsychosocial rehabilitation programme specifically targeting RTW alters the work ability in PSPS-T2 patients after SCS implantation compared to usual care.
OPERA is a multicentre randomised controlled trial which combines knowledge and expertise in neurosurgery, pain medicine, rehabilitation, health services research and return to work. More details on the trial can be found at: https://stimulus.research.vub.be/en/opera
Within this project, researchers of I-CHER investigate the cost-effectiveness of the personalised biopsychosocial rehabilitation intervention, in addition to exploring societal and health economic effects.
This project is funded by FWO-TBM (Research Foundation Flanders -Applied Biomedical Research with a Primary Social finality).
Contact persons of the project: Jonas Callens
AHA Boost
Deficits in arm and hand movements after stroke are common and result in reduced independence in activities of daily living and quality of life. Implementable therapy in the subacute rehabilitation phase for improved arm and hand recovery long-term after stroke that demonstrates robust benefits for patient and society is still required. This project will investigate whether for stroke patients who are admitted to inpatient stroke rehabilitation, an additional arm-hand intervention (AHA BOOST) when compared to dose-matched therapy, enhances arm-hand activity and quality of life post-treatment and long-term, and is cost-effective. A randomized controlled trial is conducted in two independent Flemish rehabilitation centres. Patients are evaluated pre- and post-intervention, three months after intervention and 12 months after stroke to evaluate immediate, retained and long-term clinical effects and cost-effectiveness in the first year after stroke.
In this project, the I-CHER researchers contribute to the implementation of the clinical trial, will further focus on the health economic evaluation and process evaluation regarding the implementation of this new approach in daily practice.
This project is funded by FWO-TBM (Research Foundation Flanders -Applied Biomedical Research with a Primary Social finality) and carried out by the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Jessa Hospital and the Vrije Universiteit Brussel.
Contact person for this project: Lisa Cruycke
REKOVER
The REKOVER-project focused on the registration and societal costs of traffic accidents. The project was carried out at I-CHER in cooperation with the Belgian Road Safety Institute (BRSI). The aim of I-CHER in the project was to investigate the societal cost of injuries obtained from a road traffic injury and to focus on health service use after a road traffic injury.
OptiBIRTH
Health economic evaluation of the European 'OptiBIRTH' project was an innovative programme to increase VBAC (vaginal birth after caesarean section) using evidence based prenatal strategies, including a health economic evaluation, international comparisons of health related quality of life, healthcare utilisation, and perinatal care in general. (7th Framework programme www.optibirth.eu) (partners: Trinity College Dublin, University of Gothenburg, Zuyd University of Applied Sciences, University of Eastern Finland, University of Ulster, Queen's University Belfast, Medizinische Hochschule Hannover, National University of Ireland Galway, Università degli Studi di Genova, Wetenschappelijk Fonds Willy Gepts UZ Brussel - VUB).
B2aSic
The B2aSic project was a randomized controlled trial investigating perioperative back school and brain school (pain neuroscience education) in patients undergoing surgergy for lumbar radiculopathy. Main outcome measures were pain and endogeneous pain inhibition. Secondary outcomes compromised healthcare utilization and related costs, return to work, surgical experience and pain cognitions. I-CHER was involved to provide an overview of inpatient healthcare utilization and costs of patients undergoing surgery. Additionally, I-CHER researcher investigated treatment effects on healthcare expenditure and return to work and the influence of pain cognitions on these parameters. This project was funded by the Agency for Innovation by Science and Technology (IWT) - Applied Biomedical Research Program (TBM), Belgium.
Cancer Screening
Health economic evaluation of screening programmes of breast-, colorectal- and cervical cancer including a systematic review and health economic modelling of screening programmes. (Flemish Agency for Care and Health, Partner:UGent)
OPTIMUS
Our mission was to generate new knowledge that leads to the optimization of stroke care in the most cost-effective way. OPTIMUS focused on three main pillars of fundamental research: (1) develop new diagnostic and therapeutic methods for pre-and in-hospital acute stroke care, (2) develop new approaches to enhance patient empowerment and medication safety in secondary prevention and (3) develop accurate models to predict stroke outcome. Additionally, (4) objective quantification of the added value of the novel diagnostic (1), therapeutic (1 and 2) and prognostic (3) approaches incorporated in OPTIMUS were obtained using health economic evaluation and Comparative Effectiveness Research analyses of novel care trajectories after stroke.