Teaching Pack: Population Health Outcomes

In this teaching pack on Population Health Outcomes, students learn how to describe outcomes at a population level using quality adjusted life years (QALYs), including how to calculate QALYs, the assumptions underlying them, how to derive QALYs using indirect utility measures, and what are some of the ethical criticisms of QALYs. Materials include an instructor’s note, videos, companion slides, a glossary, an annotated bibliography, and sample exercises.

Learning Objectives

1. Define Quality-Adjusted Life Years (QALYs) and be able to calculate them.
2. Explain three assumptions necessary to use QALYs as an outcome.
3. Define indirect utility measures and understand how they are used to derive community utilities.
4. Demonstrate an understanding of three ethical criticisms of QALYs.

Teaching Pack Materials

• Instructor's Note: Population Health Outcomes
• Videos: Measuring Quality Adjusted Life Years (5 videos)
• Companion Slides to Videos: Measuring Quality Adjusted Life Years
• Glossary: Population Health Outcomes
• Bibliography: Population Health Outcomes
• Sample Exercises: Population Health Outcomes

This teaching pack was developed by Sue J. Goldie and Eve Wittenberg at the Center for Health Decision Science, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. The multimedia components were developed as part of a series of pilots in the CHDS Media Hub, led by Jake Waxman, where media-based pedagogy experiments contribute to new ways of thinking about short form content. More than 75 multimedia segments were created with a creative and consistent look and feel, designed to foster connection and social proximity with the instructor, while leveraging evidence-based multimedia design principles to optimize cognitive strategies for the learner.