Funding Leads to Better Health Outcomes – Case study of Alberta Sepsis Network demonstrates how research initiative reduced mortality
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2018-08-01
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Alberta’s spending on healthcare has outpaced both economic growth and growth in government revenue, and its access to services and health outcomes are only comparable to provinces and countries that spend much less. Plenty of literature exists in favour of investments in biomedical research benefiting patients and society. While many of these studies looked at the impact of research funding at program level, this paper reviewed one of the five Interdisciplinary Team Grants (ITGs) – the Alberta Sepsis Network (ASN). The project was funded by the Alberta Innovates. Using the ASN as a case study, we aimed to find evidence if investment in sepsis research contributed toward better health outcomes such as reduced mortality for individuals with sepsis across in-patients (IPs) and Emergency Departments (EDs) in Alberta. The raw sepsis data was requested from Alberta Health Services’ (AHS) administrative data system called DIMR (Data Integration Measurement and Reporting). The sepsis data for this study was complex and presented as confirmed sepsis diagnosis and query sepsis diagnosis for IPs and EDs across Alberta. Since the ASN team had specific focus on certain sites in Calgary and Edmonton, each data group was categorized as either non-ASN site data or ASN site data and compared as evidence of impact. For overall sepsis cases confirmed as well as queried across IP and ED, the number of sepsis cases increased over the study period (2003 to 2016) both for non-ASN and ASN sites. However, increases in sepsis cases for ASN sites was higher compared to non-ASN particularly during the ASN project period of 2010 to 2016. Furthermore, a similar pattern was also recorded when the data was further separated as confirmed sepsis cases or query sepsis cases within IP or ED. The increased number of confirmed sepsis cases was, in particular, higher for ASN facilities during the ASN project period of 2010 to 2016. In addition, data also revealed that IP departments showed a larger increase in sepsis cases compared to ED. The only exception to this was query diagnosed sepsis cases both for non-ASN as well as ASN sites. Considering ASN focused sites, sepsis mortality trends were similar to that of sepsis diagnosis data trends for ASN facilities. A higher reduction in mortality rates was observed during the ASN period of 2010 to 2016 for ASN sites when compared to non-ASN sites. This can viii be attributed to additional staff dedicated to ED departments within ASN sites. The reduction in mortality rates were only observed for ASN IP sites for confirmed sepsis diagnosed cases; mortality data from query sepsis cases and from ED sites both for non-ASN and ASN sites remained non-conclusive. Research in general is an expensive undertaking with delayed or difficult to capture benefits. Despite the complexity around sepsis data, this case study was able to demonstrate that the investment in ASN research had concrete impacts on patients’ lives that made it worthwhile. While it is difficult to put a direct value for money for this publicly funded research, the sepsis data has suggested that the ASN might have saved lives particularly within ASN focused sites. Additionally, the investment in ASN offered a wide range of benefits that ultimately improved innovation and continue to save lives in other areas that have not been captured under this case study. Since government has capacity to trigger innovation and take larger risks, it should not hesitate to invest in research. Researchers and policy makers must work jointly to familiarize themselves with the research value chain and influence decision makers to not shy away from investing in research programs such as ASN.
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Haq, A. (2018). Funding Leads to Better Health Outcomes – Case study of Alberta Sepsis Network demonstrates how research initiative reduced mortality (Unpublished master's project). University of Calgary, Calgary, AB.