Medication plays an essential role in healthcare, but it also is a significant element in the increasing cost of health care. Precision dosing, also referred to as individualized dosing, utilizes drug attributes, disease state characteristics, and patient-specific factors to optimize drug therapy. It ensures that patients get the exact right dose, which improves their clinical outcomes, reduces adverse drug events, and decreases overall healthcare costs both for the individual and the healthcare industry.
Today, precision dosing is underutilized, as modern medicine routinely follows standard dosing regimens that are established during drug development and are described in the product label. However, the labeled dosing is for the ‘typical patient’, whereas every patient is different and may need individualized dosing. In fact, precision dosing has significantly improved patient safety and effectiveness by using specific measurements and health factors of the individual when creating a treatment tailored specifically for them and which evolves as their condition improves. The opportunity to improve patient care while lowering overall healthcare costs with precision dosing is evolving rapidly.
How can precision dosing lower overall healthcare costs?
Customized care is valuable because cost savings are obtained by targeting relevant actions and curtailing unnecessary actions, therefore avoiding waste. If drug regimens are effectively tailored to each individual, healthcare costs will decrease because there will be an optimized use of limited healthcare resources. The clinical studies below quantify the cost-benefits of precision dosing:
- Individualized therapy is more cost-effective than dose intensification in patients with Crohn’s disease. The results of this study indicated that costs for intention-to-treat patients were substantially lower (34%) for those treated in accordance with the algorithm than by Infliximab (IFX) dose intensification.
- Costs were consistently reduced in patients randomized to the TDM (therapeutic drug monitoring) arm in the intention-to-treat population (31%), per-protocol population (49%), and per-protocol completion end of trial week 12 population (50%). This study also reported that the algorithm’s economic superiority was maintained throughout one year with stable cost reduction percentages.
- In a decision analysis, reports showed that a TDM-guided treatment strategy dominated empiric dose escalation (numerically lower costs and higher quality-adjusted life year), which was stable across multiple sensitivity analyses with variable model inputs.
- Precision dosing could potentially help maximize drug efficacy while minimizing toxicities, by reducing the need for immunosuppressants such as methotrexate, azathioprine and the use of corticosteroids.
- Additional cost savings and fewer adverse events can be achieved by dose reduction in IBD patients with supra-optimal drug trough concentrations of infliximab.
At Baysient, we value the fact that all patients are unique and deserve individual treatments tailored specifically for them, changing as they heal. There is no single dose that is right for all patients. That is why our goal is to provide individualized treatments for patients with improved outcomes at lower costs. iDose, our cloud-based software, uses Bayesian models, routine lab results, and demographic information to allow physicians to individualize dosing to a specific target trough level. Interested in how iDose can improve your patient outcomes? Schedule a Demo today!
