Costs of genetic testing: Supporting Brazilian Public Policies for the incorporating of molecular diagnostic technologies.
This study identifies and describes the operating costs associated with the molecular diagnosis of diseases, such as hereditary cancer. To approximate the costs associated with these tests, data informed by Standard Operating Procedures for various techniques was collected from hospital software and a survey of market prices. Costs were established for four scenarios of capacity utilization to represent the possibility of suboptimal use in research laboratories. Cost description was based on a single site. The results show that only one technique was not impacted by rising costs due to underutilized capacity. Several common techniques were considerably more expensive at 30% capacity, including polymerase chain reaction (180%), microsatellite instability analysis (181%), gene rearrangement analysis by multiplex ligation probe amplification (412%), non-labeled sequencing (173%), and quantitation of nucleic acids (169%). These findings should be relevant for the definition of public policies and suggest that investment of public funds in the establishment of centralized diagnostic research centers would reduce costs to the Public Health System.
Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ciências da Saúde Cardiologia e Ciências Cardiovasculares, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil. ; Instituto Nacional de Avaliação de Tecnologias em Saúde, CNPq, Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre, Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.
Rosane Paixão
RP
Schlatter
Departamento de Genética e Programa de Pós-Graduação em Genética e Biologia Molecular, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil. ; Centro de Pesquisa Experimental, Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre, Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, RS, Brazil.
Ursula
U
Matte
Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ciências da Saúde Cardiologia e Ciências Cardiovasculares, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil. ; Instituto Nacional de Avaliação de Tecnologias em Saúde, CNPq, Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre, Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.
Carisi Anne
CA
Polanczyk
Centro de Pesquisa Experimental, Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre, Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, RS, Brazil.
Patrícia
P
Koehler-Santos
Departamento de Genética e Programa de Pós-Graduação em Genética e Biologia Molecular, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil. ; Centro de Pesquisa Experimental, Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre, Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, RS, Brazil. ; Serviço de Genética Médica, Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil.
Patricia
P
Ashton-Prolla
cost analysis; hereditary cancer; molecular diagnosis