Reference case for eye health

ICEH, in collaboration with partners, has been developing a ‘reference case’ for eye health. A reference case is used to give an overview of the costs and considerations for implementing a health intervention, as a guideline for reimbursing treatments or systems.

A reference case for eye health will provide guidelines for others to develop estimates for the costs and requirements of addressing the leading causes of vision impairment and the outcomes of treatment (e.g. quality of life). We are engaging clinical and health economics experts from multiple regions to build a consensus on standards for the design, implementation and reporting of cost estimates for a range of eye conditions.

This reference case will allow institutions or individuals to structure their choices of study design and methods, to draw on a list of standardised unit costs and outcomes for eye care interventions, and to consider how their methods introduce limitations into their estimates.

Initial work includes a systematic review of the economics of vision impairment and its leading causes, which found substantial variation across studies in average treatment costs per patient for most conditions, for example estimates for cataract surgery ranged from $54-$3654 (purchasing power parity).

Publications

Marques A, Ramke J Cairns J et al. The economics of vision impairment and its leading causes: A systematic review. eClinicalMedicine. April 2022. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2022.101354