Resources Repository
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BookPublication 2007Advances in Decision Analysis: From Foundations to Applications
Decision analysis consists of a prescriptive theory and associated models and tools that aid individuals …
Decision analysis consists of a prescriptive theory and associated models and tools that aid individuals or groups confronted with complex decision problems in a wide variety of contexts. Decision analysis can be applied to the environment, health and medicine, engineering, public policy, and business. This book reviews and extends the material typically presented in introductory texts on decision analysis. It covers the broad scope of decision analysis at an advanced level and includes chapters written by…
Mathematical Models | Value of Information | Health/Medicine | Business/Industry | Decision Theory | Probability/Bayes | Preferences/Values | Costing Methods | Health Outcomes | Decision Analysis | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Economics/Finance | Government/Law -
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…
Mathematical Models | Health/Medicine | Business/Industry | State-Transition | Benefit-Cost Analysis | Infectious Diseases | Policy/Regulation | Economics/Finance | Government/Law | North America -
ArticlePublication 2020Data-Driven Management of Post-Transplant Medications
Organ-transplanted patients typically receive high amounts of immunosuppressive drugs as a mechanism to reduce their …
Organ-transplanted patients typically receive high amounts of immunosuppressive drugs as a mechanism to reduce their risk of organ rejection. However, because of the diabetogenic effect of these drugs, this practice exposes them to a greater risk of new-onset diabetes after transplantation (NODAT), and hence, becoming insulin dependent. This study develops effective medication management strategies to address the common conundrum of balancing the risk of organ rejection versus that of NODAT. The article presents a robust…
Mathematical Models | Operations Research | Health/Medicine | Chronic Disease/Risk | North America -
Resource PackPublication, Teaching Resource 2020Resource Pack: Cost-Effectiveness of SSB Excise Taxes
The use of fiscal instruments, such as taxes or subsidies, to promote healthier dietary behavior …
The use of fiscal instruments, such as taxes or subsidies, to promote healthier dietary behavior has been of increasing interest in the last decade as the evidence-base builds for the health and economic consequences of obesity, overweight, and unhealthy eating. The motivation for using fiscal instruments in nutrition policy is to make the unhealthy option less affordable and less economically attractive by increasing the price via a tax, and therefore reduce the incentive to consume…
Mathematical Models | Health/Medicine | Business/Industry | Health Outcomes | Evidence Synthesis | Microsimulation | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Child/Nutrition | Chronic Disease/Risk | Policy/Regulation | Economics/Finance | Food/Agriculture | Government/Law | North America | Latin America & Caribbean | Europe | Oceania -
ToolInteractive, Teaching Resource 2020RAND Critical Care Surge Response Tool
This Excel-based model allows decisionmakers at all levels (i.e., hospitals, health care systems, states, regions) …
This Excel-based model allows decisionmakers at all levels (i.e., hospitals, health care systems, states, regions) to examine the current critical care capacity in the nation’s hospitals and rapidly explore strategies for increasing capacity to provide care for the sickest COVID-19 patients. The tool was developed by the RAND Corporation in response to the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. Model input parameters to the Excel spreadsheet include baseline number of beds, critical care doctors and nurses, respiratory therapists,…
Mathematical Models | Operations Research | Health/Medicine | Priority Setting/Ethics | Infectious Diseases | North America | Professional | Policy Translation -
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…
Mathematical Models | Operations Research | Health/Medicine | Maternal/Reproductive Health | Health Systems | Sub-Saharan Africa -
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…
Mathematical Models | Operations Research | Health/Medicine | Priority Setting/Ethics | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Infectious Diseases | Health Systems | Economics/Finance | Sub-Saharan Africa -
ReviewPublication 2016Remembering Howard Raiffa
Howard Raiffa (1924-2016) had a profound influence on all aspects of the decision sciences and on …
Howard Raiffa (1924-2016) had a profound influence on all aspects of the decision sciences and on the fields of systems analysis and operations research. He guided the introduction of the decision sciences into numerous fields such as business, medicine, public health, the environmental sciences, and law, and was instrumental in building world-recognized institutions such as the Kennedy School at Harvard and the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis near Vienna, Austria. This article is a thoughtful tribute by…
Operations Research | Health/Medicine | Business/Industry | Decision Theory | Preferences/Values | Decision Analysis | Economics/Finance | Military/Defense | North America -
ReportPublication 2016Modeling to Inform Strategies to Improve Population Health
This workshop report summarizes a workshop convened by the Institute of Medicine to explore the potential …
This workshop report summarizes a workshop convened by the Institute of Medicine to explore the potential uses of simulation and other types of modeling for improving health. Participants worked to identify how modeling could inform population health decision making (selecting and refining potential strategies, ranging from interventions to investments) based on lessons learned from models that have been, or have not been, used successfully, opportunities and barriers to incorporating models into decision making, and data needs and…
Mathematical Models | Health/Medicine | Business/Industry | State-Transition | Microsimulation | Dynamic Simulation | Decision Analysis | Chronic Disease/Risk | Environmental Health | Health Systems | Policy/Regulation | Climate/Environment | Government/Law | North America