Health economic model to establish the costs associated with different routes to presentation for patients with myeloma in the UK

Early diagnosis of myeloma is critical to preventing some of the late stage complications associated with end organ damage, such as spinal cord compression and irreversible kidney disease. The Myeloma UK Early Diagnosis Programme aims to better understand where delays to diagnosis occur and how we can tackle some of these issues. We want to lobby for more investment into projects that aim to ensure timely diagnosis of this blood cancer for all patients.

In partnership with Costello Medical, we have developed an economic model that investigates the costs associated with delayed diagnosis (through different routes of presentation) for myeloma patients in the UK. Considerations include treatment costs, cost of complications and end of life care costs.

We hope that this model will be of interest to clinicians, researchers, policy stakeholders and others working in the field of myeloma presentation and diagnosis. The model is designed to be user friendly and open access. We invite all those with new data to make use of the model and investigate some of the questions it may help answer. Please note that current limitation and data gaps are clearly identified.

The tutorial slide deck helps guide users in how to navigate the model. The model itself is presented as an Excel file with an accompanying full user guide. Finally, the interactive summary poster outlines some of the conclusions that can be drawn from the model and data currently available.

We hugely value your feedback and would like to hear from model users, so please get in touch by emailing earlydiagnosis@myeloma.org.uk