Study by BAMC's Michael Morris, M.D., and VA's Sheila Habib, M.D., evaluated potential economic impact of CyPath Lung for the early detection of lung cancer

A new economic study found that adding CyPath Lung, bioAffinity Technologies' noninvasive test for detection of early-stage lung cancer, to the standard of care for Medicare patients with a positive lung cancer screening could have saved an average of $2,773 per patient for total cost savings of $379 million in 2022. The peer-reviewed study, "Economic Evaluation of a Novel Lung Cancer Diagnostic in a Population of Patients with a Positive Low-Dose Computed Tomography Result," attributes the savings to a reduction in follow-up diagnostic assessments, expensive follow-up procedures and procedure-related complications.

Michael J. Morris, M.D., Brooke Army Medical Center (BAMC) pulmonology and critical care physician and Assistant Dean of Research at San Antonio Uniformed Services Health Education Consortium (SAUSHEC), and Sheila A. Habib, M.D., Director of the Pulmonary Lung Nodule Clinic and the Lung Cancer Screening Program at the South Texas Veterans Health Care Systems' Audie L. Murphy Memorial Veterans Hospital and Assistant Professor at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, were first and second authors on the study published in the Journal of Health Economics and Outcomes Research. Economists John E. Schneider, Ph.D., and Maggie L. Do Valle, Master of Public Health, of Avalon Health Economics also contributed to the study.