Burden-of-Illness Research

For more than two decades, our consultants have developed analytical tools and applied methodologies to quantify the economic, clinical and humanistic burden of disease. We have assessed disease burden from the perspectives of society, third-party payers, managed care organizations, employers, health care providers, patients, and caregivers. We evaluate burden of illness using a variety of data sources, including administrative claims data, epidemiologic surveys, registry data, electronic medical records, chart review, clinical trials, and market research.

Our research covers a wide variety of physical disease states and psychiatric disorders, and includes attention to the following categories:

  • Direct and indirect costs
  • Lifetime costs
  • Clinical burden
  • Quality-of-life burden 
  • Impact on caregiver and family
  • Impact on society 

Selected Examples of Our Work

  • Paul E. Greenberg, Andree-Anne Fournier, Tammy Sisitsky, Crystal T. Pike, Ronald C. Kessler. The Economic Burden of Adults With Major Depressive Disorder in the United States (2005 and 2010). The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry. 2015;76(2):155–162.
  • Fuldeore M, Yang H, Du EX, Soliman AM, Wu EQ, Winkel C. Healthcare Utilization and Costs in Women Diagnosed with Endometriosis Before and After Diagnosis: A Longitudinal Analysis of Claims Databases. Fertil Steril. 2014 Nov 15.
  • Bron M, Guerin A, Latremouille-Viau D, Ionescu-Ittu R, Viswanathan P, Lopez C, Wu EQ. Distribution and Drivers of Costs in Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus Treated with Oral Hypoglycemic Agents: A Retrospective Claims Data Analysis. Journal of Medical Economics. 2014 Jun 24:1–12.
  • J. Bradford Rice, Urvi Desai, Alice Kate G. Cummings, Howard G. Birnbaum, Michelle Skomicki, Nathan Parsons. Burden of Venous Leg Ulcers in the United States. Journal of Medical Economics. 2014 March: 17:347–56.
  • Papp KA, Sundaram M, Bao Y, Williams DA, Gu Y, Signorovitch JE, Wang Y, Valdes JM, Mulani PM. Effects of Briakinumab Treatment for Moderate to Severe Psoriasis on Health-Related Quality of Life and Work Productivity and Activity Impairment: Results from a Randomized Phase III Study. J Eur Acad Dermatol Venereol. 2013 May 17.
  • Parisé H, Laliberté F, Lefebvre P, Duh MS, Kim E, Agashivala N, Abouzaid S, Weinstock-Guttman B. Direct and Indirect Cost Burden Associated with Multiple Sclerosis Relapses: Excess Costs of Persons with MS and Their Spouse Caregivers. J Neurol Sci. 2013 Jul 15;330(1–2):71–77. doi: 10.1016/j.jns.2013.04.007. Epub 2013 May 3.
Selected Examples of Our Work