The British government has released a new return on investment (ROI) tool to help guide local commissioners in preventing cardiovascular disease and cutting healthcare costs in their communities, Public Health England (PHE) announced last week.
The tech looks to minimize the financial burden of heart disease on the U.K.’s economy, since CVD-related expenses cost the country £7.4 billion—nearly $9.5 billion in American dollars—each year. With the ROI tool, healthcare leaders will be able to explore a range of interventions and see how those practices would affect a population’s overall health and economy.
“We’re seeing the number of people with long-term conditions such as diabetes continue to rise, which means prevention should be high on the agenda for the NHS,” Jamie Waterall, the national lead for CVD prevention at PHE, said in a release. “That is why this new tool is hugely useful in helping decision-makers make better choices about CVD prevention, based on the best evidence of what works. It will help commissioners plan effective CVD prevention strategies and make the most of their budgets to help more people live healthier, longer lives.”
The tool, developed at the University of Sheffield, can make assessments and predictions at the national, local authority, clinical commissioning group, or sustainability and transformation partnerships level, Waterall said. It considers pharmacological interventions like the use of statins, lifestyle interventions like weight management and a host of interventions that improve adherence to pharmacological interventions, like self-monitoring BP or using an insulin pump.
According to PHE, the tool was also developed using demographic information from across the region, allowing commissioners to make accurate predictions about specific populations and their likely outcomes for high BP, atrial fibrillation, high cholesterol, diabetes, non-diabetic hyperglycemia and chronic kidney disease.
An initial analysis of the database found optimizing the use of statins and hypertensive medications in the British population could be one of the most cost-saving interventions that also saves a considerable number of lives. When it came to early identification, the study found early diagnosis of diabetes resulted in the greatest long-term cost savings.
“This is a great addition to the suite of tools we’ve produced to support commissioners in local systems,” Brian Ferguson, PHE’s chief economist, said in the release. “It’s the first one that allows users to consider combinations of interventions, and so better reflects the reality of complex care needs. The results demonstrate that investing at scale in the most cost-effective preventative activities can deliver significant health benefits.”
After graduating from Indiana University-Bloomington with a bachelor’s in journalism, Anicka joined TriMed’s Chicago team in 2017 covering cardiology. Close to her heart is long-form journalism, Pilot G-2 pens, dark chocolate and her dog Harper Lee.