PhD candidate Michelle Tew presentations at international conferences
Health Economics Unit’s PhD candidate, Michelle Tew recently presented her work on health care costs of sepsis in cancer patients at two (virtual) international conferences. Michelle contributed to an oral presentation session at the 42nd Society of Medical Decision Making Annual Meeting in October. Her abstract was selected as a finalist for the Lee B. Lusted student prize competition. Michelle also presented a virtual poster at ISPOR Europe in November. Her poster titled ‘5-year Health Care Costs of Sepsis in Cancer Patients: Results from a Population-Based Case-Control Matched Cohort” can be viewed online.
Her research showed that sepsis is a high cost, high mortality condition in cancer patients and can result in doubling of cancer care costs, particularly in the first 12 months of cancer diagnosis. This suggests the need for increased focus on the implementation of clinical pathways in hospitals where most sepsis cases are diagnosed and to strengthen initiatives for prompt sepsis identification and diagnosis particularly in the first year of cancer diagnosis. Her work has also demonstrated the value of population-linked administrative dataset in quantifying the economic burden of sepsis and gaining critical insights on the implications and burden of sepsis across the cancer care continuum. The cost estimates generated from this work will be helpful in informing resource allocation and health policy prioritisation considerations and can also be used in cost-effectiveness models for decisions on sepsis interventions.