The economic value of pathology : achieving better health and a better use of health resources
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Pathology provides data and advice that helps manage our health. It helps predict who is at risk of disease, identify those that should be targeted for prevention strategies, and is used to diagnose, monitor, and treat different diseases in ways that are most likely to be work and be cost effective.
But what is it worth?
Ironically, because it is so central to healthcare, it cannot be ‘taken away’ to see how medical decisions might be taken without it. This makes it difficult to measure and to value.
This report draws together the available data and evidence that demonstrates how pathology is used in Australia, and how it helps improve population health. Three case studies are used to illustrate the economic value of pathology, by helping minimise diabetes risks and complications to reduce healthcare costs, helping to rule out non-serious cases of chest pain to safely discharge patients early from Emergency Departments with possible heart attack, and improving survival outcomes for cancer sufferers by better matching patients with the treatments most likely to work for them at the molecular level.
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