Early health technology assessment of a primary care tool for the diagnosis and management of headaches in Alberta, Canada.

BACKGROUND: Lasoo Health is an e-software in the early stages of development, designed to generate a consult report with the most probable headache diagnosis and treatment plan from direct patient input. A patient accesses the program with their consent and a referral from primary care. Digital consult is then reviewed by a medical specialist and then sent to the primary care provider to initiate care. This early health technology assessment (eHTA) assesses the potential impact of Lasoo Health on timely access to effective headache management, cost savings, and health outcomes compared to the current standard of care (SOC) in Alberta, Canada.

METHODS: We developed a discrete event simulation (DES) of headache diagnostic pathways for Albertan patients suffering from headaches. The model was parameterized using secondary data sources identified via relevant published literature and subject matter expert opinion. Cost-effectiveness was expressed from a societal perspective using the incremental net monetary benefit (iNMB) of Lasoo Health incorporated with the SOC compared to SOC alone over an analytical time frame of five years.

RESULTS: Our analysis suggests that incorporating Lasoo Health into the SOC may reduce specialist assessment wait times by 70 percent and total per-patient costs by 7 percent. Using a willingness-to-pay (WTP) threshold of Canadian dollars (CAD) 50,000 (U.S. dollars (USD) $35,240), the iNMB per patient was estimated to be CAD 1,069 (USD $753).

CONCLUSIONS: The benefits of implementing Lasoo Health over a 5-year period could translate to improved patient outcomes, reduced wait times for specialists, and lower productivity losses among headache patients.