Resources Repository
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ArticlePublication 2022COVID-19 Response: The Need for Economic Evaluation
COVID-19-related policies are fraught with trade-offs. Many of these trade-offs involve dimensions that can be …
COVID-19-related policies are fraught with trade-offs. Many of these trade-offs involve dimensions that can be quantitatively weighed using economic evaluation, such as those between health and cost outcomes. Other types of dimensions, such as those involving equity or autonomy, can be harder to quantify but should be considered in a comprehensive health policy decision-making context nonetheless. The authors of this New England Journal of Medicine Perspectives article outline how methods of economic evaluation and decision…
Benefit-Cost Analysis | North America | Global | Policy/Regulation | Priority Setting/Ethics | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Infectious Diseases | Economics/Finance | Health/Medicine -
ArticlePublication 2023Benefits and Costs of COVID-19 Vaccine Mandates
Written mid-pandemic, this article evaluates the direct costs and health benefits of requiring COVID-19 vaccinations …
Written mid-pandemic, this article evaluates the direct costs and health benefits of requiring COVID-19 vaccinations for U.S. federal employees and healthcare and private sector workers. These mandates were controversial and some were halted by litigation. If they had been implemented as intended, the net benefits would depend on the course of the pandemic. If a more transmissible variant (such as Omicron) emerges, the net benefits may be large. If the pandemic instead fades, the benefits…
Benefit-Cost Analysis | North America | Policy/Regulation | Mathematical Models | State-Transition | Infectious Diseases | Business/Industry | Economics/Finance | Government/Law | Health/Medicine -
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 2022Emerging Therapies for COVID-19: The Value of Information From More Clinical Trials
The COVID-19 pandemic necessitated time-sensitive policy and implementation decisions regarding new therapies in the face …
The COVID-19 pandemic necessitated time-sensitive policy and implementation decisions regarding new therapies in the face of uncertainty. This study aimed to quantify consequences of approving therapies or pursuing further research. The authors used a cohort state-transition model for hospitalized patients with COVID-19 to estimate quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs) and costs associated with multiple drug regimens and usual care. For each they assessed immediate approval, use only in research, emergency use authorization or reject. They conducted cost-effectiveness…
Benefit-Cost Analysis | North America | Policy/Regulation | Value of Information | State-Transition | Infectious Diseases | Economics/Finance | Europe -
ArticlePublication 2021Global Costs, Health Benefits, & Economic Benefits of Scaling Up Treatment and Imaging Modalities for Survival of 11 Cancers
This analysis estimated the costs and lifetime health and economic benefits of scaling up imaging …
This analysis estimated the costs and lifetime health and economic benefits of scaling up imaging and treatment modality packages on cancer survival in 200 countries/territories for patients diagnosed with one of 11 cancers (oesophagus, stomach, colon, rectum, anus, liver, pancreas, lung, breast, cervix uteri, and prostate). Using a microsimulation model of global cancer survival, the paper evaluated the costs and health and economic benefits of scaling up packages of treatment (chemotherapy, surgery, radiotherapy, and targeted…
Benefit-Cost Analysis | Global | Health Systems | Priority Setting/Ethics | Health Outcomes | Microsimulation | Chronic Disease/Risk -
ArticlePublication 2018Resource Allocation in Decision Support Frameworks
Multi-criteria decision-making frameworks expand on typical decision analyses (cost-effectiveness and cost-benefit) by explicitly incorporating value …
Multi-criteria decision-making frameworks expand on typical decision analyses (cost-effectiveness and cost-benefit) by explicitly incorporating value tradeoffs from decision makers and summarizing the performance of investment options. This is done across all chosen dimensions of value, based on the weights provided by the decision makers, but comes at a cost. Currently there is no widely accepted method to suggest how to determine a budget constraint using multi-attribute models or to measure willingness to pay for incremental…
Benefit-Cost Analysis | Global | Health Systems | Priority Setting/Ethics | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Health/Medicine -
ArticlePublication 2014Evaluation of FDA Benefit-Cost Analysis of Graphic Warning Labels
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is required to do a regulatory impact analysis assessing …
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is required to do a regulatory impact analysis assessing the costs and benefits of its tobacco products and other regulations. This paper provides a critical review of the approach the FDA used in its proposed and final graphic warning label rule, and includes recommendations on how to improve the analysis in ways that account for the differences between tobacco use and consumption of most consumer products. To date, FDA…
Benefit-Cost Analysis | North America | Policy/Regulation | Costing Methods | Chronic Disease/Risk | Government/Law | Health/Medicine -
ArticlePublication 2016Economic Evaluation: Bibliometric Analysis of Recent Literature
This bibliometric analysis focuses on recently published full economic evaluations of health interventions and reflects …
This bibliometric analysis focuses on recently published full economic evaluations of health interventions and reflects critically on the implications of the findings. The authors created a database drawing on 14 health, economic, and/or general literature databases for articles published between 1 January 2012 and 3 May 2014 and identified 2844 economic evaluations. They examined the distribution of publications between countries, regions, and health areas studied and compared the relative volume of research with disease burden.…
Benefit-Cost Analysis | Global | Health Systems | Priority Setting/Ethics | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Economics/Finance | Health/Medicine | Science/Technology