ABSTRACT

As health care costs continue to escalate, more emphasis is being placed on the economic implications of diseases and their treatments. Emphysema affects approximately 1.9 million Americans and is one of the fastest growing causes of morbidity and mortality in the United States (1,2). Given the prevalence of the disease and duration of illness for those affected, the impact of emphysema on the U.S. health economy is substantial. More importantly, because emphysema is highly prevalent, new treatments that are widely adopted for this condition, even if inexpensive at the individual level, can have a tremendous impact on the overall economic burden of the disease. Thus, in today’s cost-conscious environment, evaluating the economic impact of new therapies has become nearly as important as understanding their clinical impact.