Understanding the cost of care of type 2 diabetes mellitus - a value measurement perspective.

Objectives: We explore the cost of care of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) using time-driven activity-based costing (TDABC) and connect that cost to resulting patient health outcomes.

Design: We construct six care pathways varying from low-risk to high-risk patients over a 12-month cycle of care. We collect time, resource and cost data on activities in each care pathway and compute a time-driven estimate of cost.