Resources Repository
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ArticlePublication 2022Hospital Closures amid COVID-19
The recent trend of hospital closures in the US has accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic, …
The recent trend of hospital closures in the US has accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic, as hospitals have experienced financial hardship from reduced patient volume and elective surgery cases, as well as the thin financial margins for treating patients with COVID-19. This trend of hospital closures is concerning for patients, healthcare providers, and policymakers. This current opinion piece describes the challenges caused by hospital closures and discusses what policymakers should know based on the existing…
Operations Research | North America | Health Systems | Health/Medicine -
ArticlePublication 2021Employee Health Plans Powered by Analytics
This article describes a business model for the employee health plans of large firms to …
This article describes a business model for the employee health plans of large firms to bypass insurers and instead use direct contracts with hospitals which have been designated as centers of excellence. The authors propose methods of machine learning and data analytics to identify efficient and effective delivery systems, with the ultimate goal of improving health care quality.
Operations Research | North America | Health Systems -
ArticlePublication 2021Health Opportunity Cost Threshold for CEA in the U.S.
Using a modeled cohort of 100,000 individuals in the United States with private health insurance, …
Using a modeled cohort of 100,000 individuals in the United States with private health insurance, the authors simulated the short-term mortality and morbidity resulting from increased premium related cancelation of insurance coverage. The authors used this model to estimate cost-effectiveness thresholds, in dollars per quality-adjusted life year (QALY) gained based on health opportunity costs. They reported the number of persons who dropped insurance coverage, resulting number of additional deaths and QALYs lost from mortality and…
Evidence Synthesis | North America | Health Systems | Priority Setting/Ethics | Health Outcomes | Microsimulation | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Policy/Regulation | Health/Medicine -
ArticlePublication 2019Modelling Hospital Operations from Paper Registry Data
This article, published in BMJ Global Health, aims to evaluate operations management techniques, which are …
This article, published in BMJ Global Health, aims to evaluate operations management techniques, which are underutilized in the Ethiopian health system. Previous research has outlined the limitations of paper-based patient records, but few studies have examined their potential utility for improving management of hospital operations. The authors use data collected from paper registries in an Ethiopian obstetrics ward at Addis Ababa’s Tikur Anbessa Specialized Hospital, Ethiopia’s largest university hospital, to model the ward’s operations. The…
Operations Research | Sub-Saharan Africa | Health Systems | Mathematical Models | Maternal/Reproductive Health | Health/Medicine -
ArticlePublication 2017Designing an Optimal HIV Programme for South Africa
This 2017 study compares the traditional and a novel method of comparing cost-effectiveness interventions in …
This 2017 study compares the traditional and a novel method of comparing cost-effectiveness interventions in the context of HIV in South Africa, using a modeling approach. The authors argue that the assumptions of a) independence of interventions, and b) linear scale-up effects do not hold because South Africa has a large domestically funded HIV program with highly saturated coverage levels. The authors therefore aim to better allocate resources for HIV interventions in South Africa when…
Operations Research | Sub-Saharan Africa | Health Systems | Priority Setting/Ethics | Mathematical Models | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Infectious Diseases | Economics/Finance | Health/Medicine -
ArticlePublication 2016Quality Improvement for Cardiovascular Disease Care in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: A Systematic Review
The majority of global cardiovascular disease (CVD) burden falls on people living in low- and …
The majority of global cardiovascular disease (CVD) burden falls on people living in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). As part of the Disease Control Priorities Three (DCP3) Study efforts addressing quality improvement, the authors reviewed and summarized currently available evidence on interventions to improve quality of clinic-based CVD prevention and management in LMICs. Using a narrative review of published comparative clinical trials that evaluated efficacy or effectiveness of clinic-based CVD prevention and management quality improvement…
Evidence Synthesis | Sub-Saharan Africa | Health Systems | Health Outcomes | Chronic Disease/Risk | Health/Medicine | Middle East & North Africa | Latin America & Caribbean | Asia & Pacific -
ArticlePublication 2016Estimating the Cost-Effectiveness of Implementation: Is Sufficient Evidence Available?
Timely implementation of recommended interventions can provide health benefits to patients and cost savings to …
Timely implementation of recommended interventions can provide health benefits to patients and cost savings to the health service provider. Effective approaches to increase the implementation of guidance are needed. Since investment in activities that improve implementation competes for funding against other health generating interventions, it should be assessed in term of its costs and benefits. In 2010, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence released a clinical guideline recommending natriuretic peptide (NP) testing in…
Operations Research | Europe | Health Systems | Health Outcomes | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Chronic Disease/Risk | Clinical Care | Economics/Finance | Health/Medicine -
ArticlePublication 2016Redrawing the U.S. Obesity Landscape: State-Specific Adult Obesity Prevalence
State-level estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) underestimate the obesity epidemic …
State-level estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) underestimate the obesity epidemic because they use self-reported height and weight. This study described a novel bias-correction method and produced corrected state-level estimates of obesity and severe obesity. Using non-parametric statistical matching, the authors adjusted self-reported data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) 2013 (n = 386,795) using measured data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) (n = 16,924).…
Evidence Synthesis | North America | Child/Nutrition | Health Outcomes | Health/Medicine -
ArticlePublication 2015Cancer Models and Real-World Data: Better Together
Decision-analytic models synthesize available data on disease burden and intervention effectiveness to project estimates of …
Decision-analytic models synthesize available data on disease burden and intervention effectiveness to project estimates of the long-term consequences of care. While models have been influential in informing US cancer screening guidelines under ideal conditions, incorporating detailed data on real-world screening practice has been limited given the complexity of screening processes and behaviors throughout diverse health delivery systems in the United States. The authors describe the synergies that exist between decision-analytic models and health care utilization…
Evidence Synthesis | North America | Health Systems | Mathematical Models | Calibration/Validation | Chronic Disease/Risk | Clinical Care | Health/Medicine | Science/Technology