The evaluation of a 5-year term strategy of digital health interventions for the management of UTI in the Netherlands
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2025-07-02
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en
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The Dutch healthcare system is under increasing strain due to increasing demand for care, workforce shortages and increasing costs. Urinary Tract Infection (UTI), a common and typically uncomplicated condition, accounts for a significant share (6,8%) of general practitioner (GP) consultations. Therefore, this common condition presents an opportunity for more efficient healthcare, in this case for UTI-management, by means of using telemedicine as an alternative for in-person care within the UTI care process.
This thesis evaluates the cost-effectiveness of integrating telemedicine-based care in UTI-management in the Netherlands over a five year period. By using a Markov model simulation in RStudio, grounded in normative decision theory (NDT), this study shows the results of the cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA) where two care alternatives are compared. Alternative 1, with traditional in-person care, and alternative 2, with telemedicine-based interventions.
Results show that the telemedicine-based interventions reduce total costs of the care process by 17% (over €100,000,000) and improve quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) by 3.5% simultaneously. The conducted sensitivity analysis confirmed the robustness of the simulated model. These findings suggest that integrating telemedicine as a standard practice in UTI management is a cost-saving, long term strategy that supports healthcare sustainability.
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Faculteit der Managementwetenschappen