Computer modelling provides breakthrough in psoriasis management
23 September 2008
LEO Pharma has unveiled a new weapon in its long-running campaign to
improve psoriasis management and treatment outcomes. However, the weapon
is not a new drug but a ground-breaking computer-modelling tool,
designed to help those involved in the assessment, planning and
provision of psoriasis treatment in primary care to balance optimum
outcomes with the growing need for cost control.
Psoriasis is an unpleasant, chronic skin disease, that can socially
stigmatise patients who suffer from it. Close to 20 million adults in
Europe and the United States are currently suffering from psoriasis and
approximately 450,000 new cases of the serious skin disease are
diagnosed each year. But despite the condition’s negative effect on
patients’ quality of life, about half of patients with psoriasis are not
under any clinical treatment.
Studies have shown how disruptive the condition can be for patients:
72% do not swim; 60% do not sunbathe; 64% do not wear clothes that would
show bare arms and legs; 48% find that their sex life is affected.
People with psoriasis are often stressed; see themselves as outcasts;
feel physically restrained by their disease and have a greater tendency
to depression and alcoholism (Ramsey B., O'Reagan M., British Journal of
Dermatology 1988).
“Many people see psoriasis as just a skin problem which one will have
to learn to live with. Therefore only half of all patients receive a
satisfactory treatment today, even though their quality of life is
clearly affected. This is not acceptable,” says Lars Olsen, Executive
Vice President, R&D at LEO Pharma. “People with psoriasis can and should
have a decent life. Drugs are on the market, they are safe and they
work. This must be communicated so patients can come out into the open
and get treated instead of hiding.”
Called Psoriasis and Me, the new computerised resource
simulates the impact (over two years) of the use of a range of topical
psoriasis therapies on patient outcomes and costs in a given primary
care setting.
Co-developed in the UK by LEO Pharma and specialist health economics
and outcomes research company Amygdala Ltd, Psoriasis and Me has
been piloted with English service providers for the past 11 months and
is already endorsed by the UK’s National Association of Primary Care (NAPC).
The pilot has not only revealed the extent to which providers in
England are unaware of the sizeable sums being spent on psoriasis but
also the very real prospect of significant savings that could run into
millions of pounds if replicated across the UK.
“Health economics is an increasingly important factor in service
redesign but it is often seen as a cold discipline that works against
patient needs; ‘Psoriasis and Me’ demonstrates that this doesn’t have to
be the case,” said Peter Jackson, Commercial Development Manager for LEO
UK.
“The programme has already shown that as a result of more effective
prescribing for psoriasis in an English primary care population of, say,
250,000, yearly savings could be as high as £277,000. If you extrapolate
that to the UK population as a whole (c60million), the potential annual
saving could be as much as £66million.”
The programme has also received extremely positive feedback from
clinicians who have seen it in operation. Keith Freeman, a UK Consultant
Dermatologist with dual responsibility for services in a primary care
trust and a foundation hospital trust, sees the programme as a very
welcome and valuable aid for local decision making.
“The priority for service commissioners in treating psoriasis is to
achieve the best pathways of care — to make sure that the right patients
are being treated in the right place at the right time for the best
possible outcomes. Treating effectively in primary care is better for
the patient and also means secondary care resources can be focused on
the most appropriate cases. Tools like this are the way forward to help
clinicians review services, optimise care and keep better control of
costs.”
Psoriasis and Me works by comparing specific local data inputs
— such as population size, waiting times for referrals to secondary care
and the types and costs of treatments currently in use — to stored
country-specific information and the Psoriasis Area and Severity Index (PASI
75). It then generates a report which calculates the optimum financial
savings that could be made in a service redesign which would also
improve patient outcomes using the most effective treatments.
“For decades, LEO Pharma has been at the forefront of challenging
psoriasis,” said Kristian Hart-Hansen, LEO Pharma’s Manager of Corporate
Pricing and Health Economics. “To date this has been with treatments but
now that most countries insist on some form of health technology
assessment (HTA) to demonstrate cost effectiveness; we want to add value
to the process. The idea for Psoriasis and Me came from an HTA
submission and, after the success of the UK pilot, its potential to
reinforce our challenge to this life-affecting disease is very clear.”
Psoriasis and Me is now under development for use in a number
of Northern European countries and LEO Pharma plans to roll out the
programme over the next two years.