Cost-Effectiveness Estimate for Neural Monitoring in Thyroid Surgery

There is growing evidence for the importance of more detailed cost evaluation of new technologies used in surgery. The innovative impact of technology holds the potential to achieve transformative clinical improvements. Sustainability of innovations is a relatively new concept in health care research and has become an issue of growing interest. Cost-effectiveness studies have been the most established and studied methods for evaluation in surgical patients. Limited information exists regarding the cost-effectiveness of new surgical strategies for monitored thyroid surgeries. We describe the recent evidence regarding methods of evaluation of cost-effectiveness structures and function for intraoperative neural monitoring (IONM) in thyroid surgery. Our findings suggest that health economics modeling to inform the design of a cost-effectiveness studies looking at IONM has been demonstrated to be feasible as a method for improving research efficiency.