Diagnosing idiopathic learning disability: a cost-effectiveness analysis of microarray technology in the National Health Service of the United Kingdom

The HUGO Journal

Official Journal of the Human Genome Organisation

Table 1 Staff costs for aCGH and Karyotyping

	Medical technical officer	Clinical scientist	Consultant grade scientist	Secretarial staff	Total time
Array CGH
Cost per hour range (£.p)^a	13.01–16.83	18.34–24.71	40.17–49.73	N/A	N/A
Median cost per hour (£.p)	14.69	21.65	44.09	N/A	N/A
Hands-on time (minutes)	61.00	76.00	5.00	N/A	142.00
Cost per sample range (£.p)	9.67–12.51	23.45–31.44	3.35–4.14	N/A	36.47–48.09
Cost per sample (£.p)^b	10.92	27.55	3.67	N/A	42.14
Karyotyping
Cost per hour range (£.p)^a	15.46–19.35	23.00–24.56	43.78–44.40	12.98	N/A
Hands-on time range (minutes)	40 –113	5–192	10–45	0–15	178–242^c
Hands-on time mid-point (minutes)	76.50	98.50	27.50	7.50	210.00
Cost per sample range (£.p)	10.31–34.51	1.92–78.71	7.05–33.30	0.00–3.24	73–96^c
Median Cost per sample (£.p)^b	22.41	40.32	20.18	1.62	84.53

^a Includes superannuation and national insurance
^b Cost per sample does not always equal cost per hour multiplied by time spent on one test due to batching
^c The time ranges are based on several different labs, hence the ‘minimums’ are not all referring to the same lab, nor are all the ‘maximums’. The lab with the shortest process, for example, used 113 min of MTO time, 5 min of Clinical Scientist time, 45 min of Consultant Grade Scientist time, and 15 min of Secretarial time, making 178 min in total. The cost per sample range is calculated in a similar manner