Cost-effectiveness of digital cataract assessment

Purpose: The aim of this study was to compare costs of digital photograph g rading with that of film-based, human grading of the lens in epidemiologica l studies involving cataract assessment. Methods: Cost-effectiveness was measured by establishing the number of part icipants with ungradeable images and incorporating these lost data into the overall cost per participant for each study Results: The digital grading system cost was A$105000 with operating costs of $2.81 per participant, with 99.4% effectiveness. The film-based, human g rading set-up costs were $43000 with operating costs of $18.49 per particip ant and 90% effectiveness. After examining 3500 people the use of the digit al equipment becomes cost-beneficial. Conclusions: The high costs of setting up a digital cataract grading system are offset by the low running costs, less ungradeable images and greater a ccuracy over the duration of a large scale ophthalmic epidemiological study .