Telemonitoring for patients with inflammatory bowel disease amid the COVID-19 pandemic—A cost-effectiveness analysis

Background and aim: COVID-19 pandemic burdens the healthcare systems, causes healthcare avoidance, and might worsen the outcomes of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) management. We aimed to estimate the impact of pandemic-related avoidance on outpatient IBD management, and the cost-effectiveness of adding telemonitoring during pandemic from the perspective of Hong Kong public healthcare provider. Methods: The study was performed by a decision-analytic model to estimate the quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs) and cost of care for IBD patients before and during the pandemic, and to compare the cost and QALYs of adding telemonitoring to standard care (SC-TM) versus standard care alone (SC) for IBD patients during the pandemic. The sources of model inputs included publications (retrieved from literature search) and public data. Sensitivity analyses were conducted to examine the robustness of base-case results. Results: Standard care with pandemic-related avoidance (versus without avoidance) lost 0.0026 QALYs at higher cost (by USD43). The 10,000 Monte Carlo simulations found standard care with pandemic-related avoidance lost QALYs and incurred higher cost in 100% and 96.82% of the time, respectively. Compared with the SC group, the SC-TM group saved 0.0248 QALYs and reduced cost by USD799. Monte Carlo simulations showed the SC-TM group gained higher QALYs at lower cost in 100% of 10,000 simulations. Conclusions: Standard care for IBD patients during pandemic with healthcare avoidance appears to worsen treatment outcomes at higher cost and lowered QALYs. The addition of telemonitoring to standard care seems to gain higher QALYs and reduce cost, and is therefore a potential cost-effective strategy for IBD management during the pandemic.