Can Qva149 Improve Short Term Outcomes In Patients With Copd Without Increasing The Overall Treatment Costs For The Portuguese Nhs? Optimizing Treatment Outcomes With A Responsible Use Of Limited Resources

Abstract

was based on the average monthly salary in the UK. A conservative assumption was made about the increased risk of a productive day being lost-associated with level of patient satisfaction to their treatment-by calculating an approximate number of unscheduled hospitalisations that users of a new inhaler would experience in the previous 12 months relative to Spiriva® HandiHaler®. Patient satisfaction with their inhaler was based on inhaler features that relate to ease of use and ergonomics and compared Spiriva® HandiHaler® to an improved inhaler. Results: The frequency of unscheduled hospitalisations for the new inhaler and Spiriva® HandiHaler® users were calculated at 0.34 and 0.38, resulting in 68 and 76 productive days lost annually, respectively. The total annual societal cost per patient was € 9,851 with the new inhaler and € 10,891 with Spiriva® HandiHaler®. The new inhaler costs € 1,040 less per annum than Spiriva® Handihaler®. ConClusions: New inhalers with improved features have the potential to offer substantial societal cost savings in COPD compared with Spiriva® Handihaler®.