New Analysis Group Research Reveals the Long-Term Burden of Traumatic Brain Injuries
May 3, 2017
Patients sustaining a traumatic brain injury (TBI) that results in motor impairment incur substantial health care costs that persist even beyond the acute phase of the injury, according to a cost-of-illness study coauthored by an Analysis Group team led by Vice President Noam Kirson and Manager Elyse Swallow, in collaboration with the regenerative medicine company SanBio, Inc. (the study sponsor). Findings from the study, “Economic Burden of Illness for Patients with Traumatic Brain Injury Resulting in Chronic Motor Impairment,” were presented at the World Congress of Brain Injury in New Orleans on March 31, 2017. The study compared data from 299 patients who had sustained TBIs resulting in motor impairment to that of a matched control group of nearly 600 patients without any record of brain injury. The analysis revealed that even in the second year post-injury, mean medical costs among TBI patients were nearly $27,000 higher than matched controls, and remained approximately four times higher than the costs for the control group toward the end of the two-year study period. The excess costs were associated with a wide range of medical resources, including inpatient and outpatient services, emergency department visits, and physical therapy and rehabilitation services, as well as prescription drug use.