Cost-Effectiveness and Value of Information Analysis of an Ambient Intelligent Geriatric Management (AmbIGeM) System Compared to Usual Care to Prevent Falls in Older People in Hospitals

Background The Ambient Intelligent Geriatric Management (AmbIGeM) system combines wearable sensors with artificial intelligence to trigger alerts to hospital staff before a fall. A clinical trial found no effect across a heterogenous population, but reported a reduction in the injurious falls rate in a post hoc analysis of patients on Geriatric Evaluation Management Unit (GEMU) wards. Cost-effectiveness and Value of Information (VoI) analyses of the AmbIGeM system in GEMU wards was undertaken. Methods An Australian health-care system perspective and 5-year time horizon were used for the cost-effectiveness analysis. Implementation costs, inpatient costs and falls data were collected. Injurious falls were defined as causing bruising, laceration, fracture, loss of consciousness, or if the patient reported persistent pain. To compare costs and outcomes, generalised linear regression models were used to adjust for baseline differences between the intervention and usual care groups. Bootstrapping was used to represent uncertainty. For the VoI analysis, 10,000 different sample sizes with randomly sampled values ranging from 1 to 50,000 were tested to estimate the optimal sample size of a new trial that maximised the Expected Net Benefits of Sampling. Results An adjusted 0.036 fewer injurious falls (adjusted rate ratio of 0.56) and AUD$4554 lower costs were seen in the intervention group. However, uncertainty that the intervention is cost effective for the prevention of an injurious fall was present at all monetary values of this effectiveness outcome. A new trial with a sample of 4376 patients was estimated to maximise the Expected Net Benefit of Sampling, generating a net benefit of AUD$186,632 at a benefit-to-cost ratio of 1.1. Conclusions The benefits to cost ratio suggests that a new trial of the AmbIGeM system in GEMU wards may not be high-value compared to other potential trials, and that the system should be implemented. However, a broader analysis of options for preventing falls in GEMU is required to fully inform decision making. Trial Registration Australian and New Zealand Clinical Trial Registry (ACTRN 12617000981325).