To me, the important thing about Dr. Dobbs figures is that they are real world, measurable and accountable figures. Whilst we have seen many previous cost comparisons that factor in QALY and other esoteric long term considerations to prove the cost effectiveness of QFT over TST, it is results such as these that we see here and have seen reported from other places, such as SanFrancisco that carry the most weight.
In general, health departments work on Government style accounting which is quite different than that employed by the rest of us. They are usually funded annually and therefore make financial decisions that place much more emphasis on annual costs, rather than long term (5, 10 or more years) cost savings.
These results show a significant (massive) cost saving over the time period of a contact investigation (about 1 year). It should therefore assist hugely in the costing part of the equation that will result in a switch to QuantiFERON testing from TST testing.
Forrest
ReplyDeleteKeep the good work up, very much enjoy your blogs
Cheers
It is good to see hard and fast figures on the cost of QFT v TST.
ReplyDeleteWhat amazes me is that nobody has sued over a mis-diagnosis with TST. The short and long term effects on ones life style are immense