cost of food allergy diagnosis1
Food allergy over-diagnosis can harm patients, overburden families and healthcare provider offices, and elevate healthcare costs. Epitope mapping as a food allergy diagnostic platform can help change this.
32 million people in the U.S., and eight percent, or 5.9 million, of children have a food allergy.1.
Food allergies in the U.S., alone, is nearly $25 billion annually, or roughly $4,184 per child. Direct medical costs were $4.3 billion annually, including clinician visits, emergency department visits, and hospitalizations.1
Approximately 60% of food allergy patients are overdiagnosed.1-3. For many patients affected by a false-positive diagnosis, there can be a lifetime of costs associated with food allergies that are unnecessary3
Confirmatory oral food challenges for children, within a year of diagnosis, is a cost-effective strategy that decreases costs and improves QOL. 5
A correct diagnosis with a gold standard oral food challenge (OFC) could potentially reduce the annual costs of food allergy by compensating for the relatively low specificity of SPT/IgE.4
The Allergenis Peanut Diagnostic has high specificity (94%) and sensitivity (92%), allowing for an accurate diagnosis.7,8
While OFCs are very useful for making an allergy diagnosis and determining clinical reactivity, they carry the risk of allergic reactions and anaphylaxis, which can increase patient anxiety and are time and resource intensive. The Allergenis platform provides diagnosis with 93% concordance with an oral food challenge and clinical reactivity levels for allergic patients, without the risk for anaphylaxis, and may provide a useful surrogate for peanut oral food challenges.6