Pediatric Clinical and Health Services Outcomes following Tympanostomy Tube Insertion

This study used real-world data (RWD) from electronic health records (EHR) and health plan claims to examine the pre-operative clinical care pathway and outcomes following insertion of tympanostomy tubes – the device of interest – among children.

Tympanostomy tube insertion (TTI) accounts for nearly 1 in 4 pediatric surgeries in the United States, making it the most common invasive procedure done in children. Although there have been numerous studies on the effects of TTI on future otitis media episodes and hearing improvement, there have been no comprehensive descriptive and comparative analyses of the clinical and health services outcomes of children following TTI using data from real-world settings.

The purpose of this project was to describe the clinical and health services outcomes of TTI with and without tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy. This study was the largest ever conducted on TTI, providing the most in-depth evaluation of the clinical and health services outcomes for this procedure. The study’s findings are anticipated to be of great interest to patients and their families, primary care physicians, ENT surgeons, and health system leaders who deal with the real-world issues related to ear infections and their management.

NESTcc was instrumental in identifying this study topic, providing a framework for linkage of an industry partner with academic medical centers and researchers, and providing rapid and low burden administrative start-up resources.