Yevgeniy Samyshkin

Barriers to sustainable tuberculosis control in the Russian Federation health system

The Russian Federation has the eleventh highest tuberculosis burden in the world in terms of the total estimated number of new cases that occur each year. In 2003, 26% of the population was covered by the internationally recommended control strategy known as directly observed treatment (DOT) compared to an overall average of 61% among the 22 countries with the highest burden of tuberculosis. The Director-General of WHO has identified two necessary starting points for the scaling-up of interventions to control emerging infectious diseases. These are a comprehensive engagement with the health system and a strengthening of the health system. The success of programmes aimed at controlling infectious diseases is often determined by constraints posed by the health system. We analyse and evaluate the impact of the arrangements for delivering tuberculosis services in the Russian Federation, drawing on detailed analyses of barriers and incentives created by the organizational structures, and financing and provider-payment systems. We demonstrate that the systems offer few incentives to improve the efficiency of services or the effectiveness of tuberculosis control. Instead, the system encourages prolonged supervision through specialized outpatient departments in hospitals (known as dispensaries), multiple admissions to hospital and lengthy hospitalization. The implementation, and expansion and sustainability of WHO-approved methods of tuberculosis control in the Russian Federation are unlikely to be realized under the prevailing system of service delivery. This is because implementation does not take into account the wider context of the health system. In order for the control programme to be sustainable, the health system will need to be changed to enable services to be reconfigured so that incentives are created to reward improvements in efficiency and outcomes.

Cost-effectiveness of available treatment options for patients suffering from severe COPD in the UK: a fully incremental analysis

Purpose Frequent exacerbations which are both costly and potentially life-threatening are a major concern to patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), despite the availability of several treatment options. This study aimed to assess the lifetime costs and outcomes associated with alternative treatment regimens for patients with severe COPD in the UK setting. Patients and methods A Markov cohort model was developed to predict lifetime costs, outcomes, and cost-effectiveness of various combinations of a long-acting muscarinic antagonist (LAMA), a long-acting beta agonist (LABA), an inhaled corticosteroid (ICS), and roflumilast in a fully incremental analysis. Patients willing and able to take ICS, and those refusing or intolerant to ICS were analyzed separately. Efficacy was expressed as relative rate ratios of COPD exacerbation associated with alternative treatment regimens, taken from a mixed treatment comparison. The analysis was conducted from the UK National Health Service (NHS) perspective. Parameter uncertainty was explored using one-way and probabilistic sensitivity analysis. Results Based on the results of the fully incremental analysis a cost-effectiveness frontier was determined, indicating those treatment regimens which represent the most cost-effective use of NHS resources. For ICS-tolerant patients the cost-effectiveness frontier suggested LAMA as initial treatment. Where patients continue to exacerbate and additional therapy is required, LAMA + LABA/ICS can be a cost-effective option, followed by LAMA + LABA/ICS + roflumilast (incremental cost-effectiveness ratio [ICER] versus LAMA + LABA/ICS: £16,566 per quality-adjusted life-year [QALY] gained). The ICER in ICS-intolerant patients, comparing LAMA + LABA + roflumilast versus LAMA + LABA, was £13,764/QALY gained. The relative rate ratio of exacerbations was identified as the primary driver of cost-effectiveness. Conclusion The treatment algorithm recommended in UK clinical practice represents a costeffective approach for the management of COPD. The addition of roflumilast to the standard of care regimens is a clinical and cost-effective treatment option for patients with severe COPD, who continue to exacerbate despite existing bronchodilator therapy.

Mental health reform in the Russian Federation: an integrated approach to achieve social inclusion and recovery

OBJECTIVE To facilitate mental health reform in one Russian oblast (region) using systematic approaches to policy design and implementation. METHODS The authors undertook a three-year action-research programme across three pilot sites, comprising a multifaceted set of interventions combining situation appraisal to inform planning, sustained policy dialogue at federal and regional levels to catalyse change, introduction of multidisciplinary and intersectoral-working at all levels, skills-based training for professionals, and support for nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to develop new care models. FINDINGS Training programmes developed in this process have been adopted into routine curricula with measurable changes in staff skills. Approaches to care improved through multidisciplinary and multisectoral service delivery, with an increase in NGO activities, user involvement in care planning and delivery in all pilot sites. Hospital admissions at start and end of the study fell in two pilot sites, while the rate of readmissions in all three pilot sites by 2006 was below that for the region as a whole. Lessons learned have informed the development of regional and federal mental health policies. CONCLUSION A multifaceted and comprehensive programme can be effective in overcoming organizational barriers to the introduction of evidence-based multisectoral interventions in one Russian region. This can help facilitate significant and sustainable changes in policy and reduce institutionalization.

Health-systems efficiency in the Russian Federation: tuberculosis control.

OBJECTIVE To conduct a comprehensive assessment of the case-mix of patients admitted to tuberculosis hospitals and the reasons for their admission in four Russian regions: Ivanovo, Orel, Samara and Vladimir. We also sought to quantify the extent to which efficiency could be improved by reducing hospitalization rates and re-profiling hospital beds available in the tuberculosis-control system. METHODS We used a standard questionnaire to determine how beds were being used and who was using the beds in tuberculosis facilities in four Russian regions. Data were collected to determine how 4306 tuberculosis beds were utilized as well as on the socioeconomic and demographic indicators, clinical parameters and reasons for hospitalization for 3352 patients. FINDINGS Of the 3352 patients surveyed about 70% were male; the average age was 40; and rates of unemployment, disability and alcohol misuse were high. About one-third of beds were occupied by smear-positive or culture-positive tuberculosis patients; 20% were occupied by tuberculosis patients who were smear-negative and/or culture-negative; 20% were occupied by patients who no longer had tuberculosis; and 20% were unoccupied. If clinical and public health admission criteria were applied then < 50% of admissions would be justified and < 50% of the current number of beds would be required. Up to 85% of admissions and beds were deemed to be necessary when social problems and poor access to outpatient care were considered along with clinical and public health admission criteria. CONCLUSION Much of the Russian Federations large tuberculosis hospital infrastructure is unnecessary when clinical and public health criteria are used, but the large hospital infrastructure within the tuberculosis-control system has an important social support function. Improving the efficiency of the system will require the reform of health-system norms and regulations as they relate to resource allocation and clinical care and implementation of lower-cost approaches to case management for patients with social problems. Additionally, closer attention will need to be paid to the management of staff numbers in the tuberculosis system.

Cost-effectiveness models for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: cross-model comparison of hypothetical treatment scenarios.

OBJECTIVES To compare different chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) cost-effectiveness models with respect to structure and input parameters and to cross-validate the models by running the same hypothetical treatment scenarios. METHODS COPD modeling groups simulated four hypothetical interventions with their model and compared the results with a reference scenario of no intervention. The four interventions modeled assumed 1) 20% reduction in decline in lung function, 2) 25% reduction in exacerbation frequency, 3) 10% reduction in all-cause mortality, and 4) all these effects combined. The interventions were simulated for a 5-year and lifetime horizon with standardization, if possible, for sex, age, COPD severity, smoking status, exacerbation frequencies, mortality due to other causes, utilities, costs, and discount rates. Furthermore, uncertainty around the outcomes of intervention four was compared. RESULTS Seven out of nine contacted COPD modeling groups agreed to participate. The 5-year incremental cost-effectiveness ratios (ICERs) for the most comprehensive intervention, intervention four, was €17,000/quality-adjusted life-year (QALY) for two models, €25,000 to €28,000/QALY for three models, and €47,000/QALY for the remaining two models. Differences in the ICERs could mainly be explained by differences in input values for disease progression, exacerbation-related mortality, and all-cause mortality, with high input values resulting in low ICERs and vice versa. Lifetime results were mainly affected by the input values for mortality. The probability of intervention four to be cost-effective at a willingness-to-pay value of €50,000/QALY was 90% to 100% for five models and about 70% and 50% for the other two models, respectively. CONCLUSIONS Mortality was the most important factor determining the differences in cost-effectiveness outcomes between models.

Long-term clinical and economic outcomes associated with liraglutide versus sitagliptin therapy when added to metformin in the treatment of type 2 diabetes: a CORE Diabetes Model analysis

Abstract Background: A recent open-label, parallel group trial showed that liraglutide is superior to sitagliptin for reduction of HbA1c, and is well tolerated with minimum risk of hypoglycemia. Although these findings support the use of liraglutide as an effective GLP-1 agent to add to metformin, the value of liraglutide needs to be quantified in the framework of a cost-effectiveness (CE) analysis in a US setting. Objective: This current study sets out to assess the long-term cost-effectiveness outcomes of liraglutide vs sitagliptin based on treatment effects data from the 1860-LIRA-DPP-4 52-week trial. Methods: The IMS CORE Diabetes Model (CDM), a non-product-specific, validated computer simulation model that projects the long-term outcomes related to interventions for type 2 diabetes, is used for simulation of these interventions. In the model, patients were treated initially on one of the three treatment options: liraglutide 1.2 mg daily, 1.8 mg daily, or sitagliptin 100 mg daily, each used as add-on therapy to metformin for 5 years. After 5 years all patients switched to basal insulin treatment for the remainder of the simulation (35-year time horizon overall). Incremental cost-effectiveness ratios (ICERs) were generated for liraglutide 1.2 mg compared with sitagliptin and liraglutide 1.8 mg compared with sitagliptin. Transition probabilities, health state utility values, and complication costs were obtained from published sources. All outcomes were discounted at 3% per annum, and the analysis was conducted from the perspective of a third-party payer in the US. Sensitivity analyses were performed to test robustness of the base case scenario. Results: For liraglutide 1.8 mg vs sitagliptin, the ICER was

Cost-effectiveness of roflumilast in combination with bronchodilator therapies in patients with severe and very severe COPD in Switzerland

37,234 per QALY gained, while for liraglutide 1.2 mg vs sitagliptin, the ICER was

Long-term cost-consequence analysis of exenatide once weekly vs sitagliptin or pioglitazone for the treatment of type 2 diabetes patients in the United States

25,742 per QALY gained. In all sensitivity analyses, including setting the change in HbA1c to the lower limits of the 95% confidence intervals, the ICERs remained below US

Modeling the lifetime costs of insulin glargine and insulin detemir in type 1 and type 2 diabetes patients in Canada: a meta-analysis and a cost-minimization analysis

50,000/QALY, a commonly accepted threshold in the US, except for the shortest time horizon of 10 years. Conclusions: The availability of liraglutide 1.2 mg and 1.8 mg with improved efficacy profiles over sitagliptin could improve patient care, with the incremental cost effectiveness ratio below

Mental Health Care Reforms in Europe: Rehabilitation and Social Inclusion of People With Mental Illness in Russia

50,000 per QALY gained as add-on to metformin.