Description
Early treatment for progressive pulmonary fibrosis (PPF) improves outcomes. However, diagnosis of fibrotic-interstitial lung diseases (fibrotic ILDs) and detection of potentially emergent PPF are delayed by 9-12 months on average. New ILD diagnostic and PPF monitoring strategies are being investigated to enable early treatment and improve patient outcomes.A time-to-event cost-effectiveness model for reducing delays in ILD diagnosis and PPF detection was developed. Model inputs were obtained from ILD expert clinicians, the literature, and statistical progression equations derived from the INBUILD trial. The study investigated discounted health economic outcomes of early diagnosis of ILD and detection of PPF in eight European countries (Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Norway, The Netherlands, Portugal, and Sweden).The study highlights substantial benefits from reducing the time to diagnose fibrotic ILD and identifying PPF across various ILD subtypes. Clinical advantages arise from any reduction in diagnostic delays, primarily by delaying the onset of PPF and facilitating earlier nintedanib treatment. The model indicates that earlier diagnosis results in quality-adjusted life-year (QALY) gains across all countries, with improvements ranging from 0.061 to 0.084 in the base case. Furthermore, all tested scenarios confirm the cost-effectiveness of early diagnosis of fibrotic ILD and of PPF detection across all studied countries.Early diagnosis of ILD and detection of PPF yield cost-effective clinical benefits, supporting the adoption of approaches to speed up ILD diagnosis and PPF detection.ClinicalTrials.gov identifier, NCT02999178.
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