The mini health technology assessment tool : An application model on HCV and cancer patients / Noha Nabil Hayek ; Supervised Mona Ibrahim Ellawindi , Hanan Ali Sayed , Zeinab M. Abdelhafeez Elsayed

Thesis (Ph.D.) - Cairo University - Faculty of Medicine - Department of Community Medicine

Background: HTA aims at helping decision makers in health care including hospitals make a scientific-based decision through efficient use of resources that considers all aspects a health technology affects namely 4 main parts: the clinical, the patient, the economic, and organization.Objectives: HTA was first designed to be used on a national level but with practice smaller scale versions were adapted to be used at hospital level, one of which is the mini-HTA. The study aimed to use mini-HTA to inform the decision for screening and consequent treatment of HCV positive cancer patients using direct acting antivirals which according to literature improves both hepatic and oncological outcomes, moreover it also decreases cost and DALYS.Results: The study showed that 8.8% of oncology patients were HCV positive during the study period. With the administration of chemotherapy liver functions decreased during that period as evident by increase in liver enzymes (AST- ALT) and decrease in albumin levels. Also, PCR levels increased in most patients (67.2%) indicating viral reactivation but wasn{u2019}t statistically correlated with the rise in liver enzymes indicating that they are an unreliable measure for viral reactivation.To measure quality of life EORTC-QLQ v30 core questionnaire was used.Comparing our results with the reference values revealed that the dual pathology reduced QOL scores of patients in physical function, role function and social function, all symptom scores, in addition to financial difficulties & global health score

Issued also as CD