Economic Impact Assessment

The Integrative science, Intelligent data platform for Individualized LUNG cancer care with Immunotherapy (I³LUNG) consortium, funded by Horizon Europe, is leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) methods to develop a clinical decision-making tool for personalized lung cancer care. The goal is to improve the matching of metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (mNSCLC) patients with the most suitable immunotherapy (IO) or non-IO treatments. This can potentially revolutionize care by improving treatment outcomes, reducing unnecessary costs, and ensuring that patients most unlikely to benefit from IO therapy are provided more appropriate treatments alternatives and are spared the risk of serious IO-related adverse events like hyperprogression.

The Swedish Institute for Health Economics continues to develop the economic models that will be used support economic analysis of the I³LUNG AI platform from the many perspectives used in participating countries including stakeholders in the EU member states, the US, and Israel.

The conceptualization and programming of a budget impact model has been successfully completed. This model will play a vital role in informing stakeholders about the short-term budgetary implications and any budget reallocations that may be required in conjunction with adoption of the I³LUNG tool. The model incorporates intentional flexibility to consider the diverse perspectives of stakeholders in different settings. Our next step is to incorporate the results of the I³LUNG study when they become available and then to utilize the model empirically.

A key milestone in the development of our model involved performing a systematic literature review (SLR) of published budget impact models of lung cancer. The review identified 21 models. Findings from the SLR were presented at the Swedish Health Economics Association (SHEA) annual meeting held at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden on April 25, 2023. The number of identified models exceeded our initial expectations, and the time trend is positive, indicating a growing interest in this area of research. Of particular relevance for the assessment of the I³Lung AI tool, a large number of models evaluated IO therapies. While none of the identified models met our specific needs, some of them offered valuable features that have greatly contributed to the conceptualization and development of our budget impact model. Currently, a manuscript for peer-reviewed publication is under preparation.

In addition to the budget impact model, the Swedish Institute for Health Economics is also developing a cost-effectiveness model, which will be capable both of assessing the “value for money” associated with adopting the I³LUNG AI platform across participating countries and of optimizing the economic efficiency of the tool. We are in the final stages of conducting an SLR of published cost-effectiveness models of lung cancer and have identified nearly 200 relevant models. The findings from this review, which will be reported in the fall, will provide valuable insights into conceptualization of the cost-effectiveness model.

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