NOL monitoring provides a reliable index for the surgical team to objectively detect and quantify noxious stimuli during anaesthesia, when patients can't communicate, guiding tailored opioid dosing for each patient
FREMONT, CA: AI tools have been transforming the way hospitals practice, and the operation room is no exception. A new economic study has shown that the breakthrough NOL technology (Medasense), an AI-based pain-response monitoring solution currently used in operating rooms and critical care settings, is likely to help reduce the cost of care for hospitals. A recent study published at the 2020 ISPOR (International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research) Conference, showed that NOL-guided intraoperative analgesia could facilitate cost savings in under a year.
NOL monitoring provides a reliable index for the surgical team to objectively detect and quantify noxious stimuli during anaesthesia, when patients can't communicate, guiding tailored opioid dosing for each patient. Prior studies have shown that the NOL index outperforms other indexes for monitoring of pain response to surgical stimuli and that NOL-guided opioid administration can reduce hypotensive events by 80 percent and consumption of intraoperative opioids by 30 percent.
"NOL monitoring harnesses AI technology to help clinicians in personalizing analgesic medication more accurately, resulting in significant cost savings for healthcare providers. By making this important economic data available alongside growing clinical evidence, we hope to see increasing adoption of NOL monitoring in surgical facilities in the near future," says Rhodri Saunders, co-author of the study and founding director of Coreva Scientific, a leading Germany-based health economics firm.
Consensus statements and published evidence have confirmed that hypotension during non-cardiac surgery is associated with increased rates of postoperative complications and mortality. The new economic study describes a cost-effective model in five countries based on the following factors in non-cardiac surgery: 1—incremental cost of hospital ownership of the NOL monitoring device; 2—OR time and change in adverse patient outcomes associated with intraoperative hypotension when monitoring patients with NOL; 3—associated cost savings. The results showed that ROI could be achieved within two to five months. Depending on the country, savings of USD 218,000 to USD 417,000 in hospital expenses could be reached within one year.
