Start date: September 1997
Planned end date: August 1998Estimated cost: £23,946
Research objectives
The aim of this study is to evaluate the cost
effectiveness of a specialist outreach service in asthma based at Lewisham Hospital NHS
Trust. A clinical evaluation of this service has already been commissioned and is looking
at the effects of the service on quality of care, morbidity and hospital use.
This study will aim, firstly, to identify and
describe costs borne by the Trust, general practices and patients and their families in
the management of asthma, both with and without the outreach service.
Secondly, in conjunction with the outcomes data
obtained from the main evaluation, the results will be used to compare the
cost-effectiveness of asthma management with and without an outreach service.
The information from the economic evaluation will be
used to
| (i) | identify any potential costs savings made by the Trust in the treatment of asthma through reductions in morbidity, |
| (ii) | examine the transfer of resources between secondary and primary care and identify the reductions in morbidity and hospital use required in order for the outreach service to become self-financing and |
| (iii) | inform the decision of whether the service should be extended to a wider area in south-east London. The information obtained will be also be important in the context of the recent rapid growth in specialist outreach clinics across the UK, which largely remain unevaluated from an economic perspective. |
For further information contact
Dr Patrick White
Chronic Illness Group
King's College School of Medicine & Dentistry
Weston Education Centre
Bessemer Road
London, SE5 9PJ
UK.
Email: patrick.white@kcl.ac.uk
Return to Commissioned Research: Ongoing Projects
Page maintained by Philip Green
Last updated 05 July 1999
This page looks best when viewed with Microsoft Internet Explorer.