• Media type: E-Article
  • Title: Use of anti-vascular endothelial growth factor drugs for eye disease in Tuscany: Development and test of indicators of treatment intensity
  • Contributor: Virgili, Gianni; Tosi, Gian Marco; Figus, Michele; Rizzo, Stanislao; Murro, Vittoria; Mucciolo, Dario Pasquale; Roberto, Giuseppe; Gini, Rosa
  • Published: SAGE Publications, 2020
  • Published in: European Journal of Ophthalmology, 30 (2020) 6, Seite 1440-1447
  • Language: English
  • DOI: 10.1177/1120672119885045
  • ISSN: 1120-6721; 1724-6016
  • Keywords: Ophthalmology ; General Medicine
  • Origination:
  • Footnote:
  • Description: <jats:sec><jats:title>Purpose:</jats:title><jats:p> We aimed to develop indicators based on electronic administrative data to compare treatment intensity at a hospital level in Tuscany, Italy. </jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Methods:</jats:title><jats:p> Data from 3 university hospitals (UHs), 11 local hospitals (LHs) and 2 private hospitals were analysed. Patients newly treated with an intravitreal injection were followed up for 365 days. Indicator #1 concerned hospitals with &gt;80% of injections linked to a drug and patients with all injections linked to a drug. Indicator #2 included patients who received ⩾3 injections during the first 90 days, regardless of injection-drug linkage. </jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Results:</jats:title><jats:p> Indicator #1 was computed on four hospitals and included 3210 patients (48.3%). The average number of injections was 3.24 in the largest UH1. Compared to the latter, indicator #1 was significantly lower in UH2 and UH3 (−0.47 and −0.58, respectively; p &lt; 0.001). Indicator #2 was computed on all hospitals and included 2789 patients (41.9%). UH1 delivered about 4.33 injections. Compared to the latter, LH4 delivered +0.62 injections ( p &lt; 0.001) and nine other hospitals delivered between −0.22 and −0.94 injections ( p &lt; 0.05). </jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Conclusion:</jats:title><jats:p> The two indicators proved to have the potential for supporting clinicians and policy makers in promoting the appropriate treatment intensity with intravitreal anti-vascular endothelial growth factor drugs. </jats:p></jats:sec>