Dermatologist treatment, vs pediatrician treatment, appears cost-effective as it relates to producing additional quality-adjusted life years (QALYs), according to a recent study. In order to assess the cost-effectiveness from the payer perspective of using dermatologists vs pediatricians to treat acne in adolescents, a Markov model was constructed to explore outcomes over a 2-year period from the US private payer perspective. Acne patients aged 10 to 18 years (n=1,000) entered the model under the “dermatologist” and “pediatrician” conditions. In each 3-month cycle, each modeled patient received topical retinoids, benzoyl peroxide (BP), antibiotics, or no treatment, and could progress to an acne-free state or remain in an acne state. Researchers found:

• The average patient spent 42.3% of the time in acne-free states under the dermatologist condition and 28.0% of the time in acne-free states under the pediatrician condition.
• The cohort patients experienced 1,900 total QALYs at a cost of $2.33 million in the dermatologist condition and 1,883 total QALYs at a cost of $1.62 million in the pediatrician condition, yielding an incremental cost-effectiveness ratio of $40,000/QALY.