BCN HEALTH has published 14 studies in 2020 assessing the incidence and costs of illness of different diseases in Spain

BCN HEALTH has published 14 studies in 2020 assessing the incidence and cost of illness of different diseases in Spain. These studies have been published in international peer reviewed journals. The journals that have published our studies were: PlosONE, Expert Review of Pharmacoeconomics & Outcomes Research, Journal of Medical Economics, European Journal of Ophthalmology, BMJ Open, Current Medical Research and Opinion and BMC Cancer.

BCN HEALTH conducted retrospective studies based on records of patients diagnosed with the different diseases and treated in public and private hospitals in Spain between 2000 and 2017. The main objective was to assess the disease incidence at a hospital level and the associated costs. Data were extracted from the Spanish Ministry of Health records via a claims database containing patient records from 192 private and 313 public hospitals covering all regions in Spain. Direct medical costs at the hospital level were calculated based on mean medical procedure costs determined by the Spanish Ministry of Health. Parameters such as health centres and medical history identifiers were re-coded at the health care centre level in order to maintain anonymized records in accordance with the principles of Good Clinical Practice and the Declaration of Helsinki.

Admission were identified using the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems version 9 (ICD-9) codes and version 10 (ICD-10) codes. Both inpatient admissions and outpatient hospital visits were obtained, always defined as an “admission” and distinguishable by length of stay. The following variables were extracted from the database: patients’ sex and age, date of admission, date of discharge, type of admission, type of discharge (including death), hospital service, readmission rate (understood as a subsequent admission for the same cause within 30 days after discharge), reason of admission, up to 20 secondary diagnoses registered during the admission, up to 14 procedures registered during the admission and the imputed admission cost.

Some of the diseases assessed during 2020 were: Alzheimer, chronic kidney disease, colorectal cancer, lung cancer, osteogenesis imperfecta and cholangiocarcinoma.

These studies provided novel data to assist decision makers in allocating resources, and have provided information about the disease burden for the National Spanish Healthcare System, identifying the key cost drivers.