Coronary disease & ACSResearch article
Cost-effectiveness of a digitally enabled cardiac rehabilitation programme for patients with coronary heart disease
- Cost-effectiveness analysis (Markov model)
- 5-year time horizon
- 3% annual discounting
- one-way and probabilistic sensitivity analyses
Authors' conclusion
Digitally enabled cardiac rehabilitation is a cost-effective alternative to usual care, offering improved health outcomes at an acceptable cost.
Study context
- Population
- Patients admitted for coronary heart disease (CHD), recruited nationally post-hospitalization
- Participants
- 337 patients
- Comparison
- Digitally enabled cardiac rehabilitation vs usual care
- Digitally enabled cardiac rehabilitation (DeCR)n = 88
- Usual caren = 249reference
- Outcome
- Cost per QALY gained (ICER); WTP threshold AUD$50 000 per QALY
- Follow-up
- 5-year time horizon
Main finding
As reported in the abstract
QALYs and costs per patient (Markov model)
| Group | Value | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| DeCR | 4.677 quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) | AUD$121,235 |
| Usual care | 3.244 QALYs | AUD$100 733 |
- Incremental cost
- AUD$20 503
- Incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) per QALY gained, well below the willingness-to-pay (WTP) threshold
- AUD$14 302 (€9082)
- Cost-effective in simulations
- 87%
Further findings
Key ICER drivers
- Mortality risk, proportion of usual care attending cardiac rehabilitation, and DeCR utility gained
Original publication
Cost-effectiveness of a digitally enabled cardiac rehabilitation programme for patients with coronary heart disease. Eur J Prev Cardiol. Published 29 August 2025. doi:10.1093/eurjpc/zwaf512
Summarised from the published abstract; every number is checked against it