Resources Repository
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Resource PackPublication, Teaching Resource 2024Resource Pack: Ethiopian Health Decision Sciences
This resource pack provides a curated set of peer-reviewed articles that represent the growing evidence …
This resource pack provides a curated set of peer-reviewed articles that represent the growing evidence base for decision making and priority setting in Ethiopia - with an emphasis on improving health, reducing inequity, and preventing health-related impoverishment. Curated by Dr. Stéphane Verguet at the Center for Health Decision Science, most of the papers reflect work done as part of the Disease Control Priorities-Ethiopia (DCP-E) project. The pack provides scholarship that spans maternal-child health, vaccine-preventable disease, infectious…
Priority Setting/Ethics | Costing Methods | Health Outcomes | Mathematical Models | Benefit-Cost Analysis | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Health Systems | Health/Medicine | Sub-Saharan Africa | Graduate | Doctoral | Professional | Critical Thinking/Analysis | Decision Making/Leadership | Policy Translation -
EditorialPublication 2020Waiting for Certainty on COVID-19 Antibody Tests — At What Cost?
This perspective anticipates the availability of serologic antibody testing and considers its potential usefulness in mitigation …
This perspective anticipates the availability of serologic antibody testing and considers its potential usefulness in mitigation policy to reduce COVID-19 transmission. For example: Could we screen for serologic antibodies as a proxy for possible immunity and identify people who could return to the workplace with less severe mitigation measures? The authors acknowledge the uncertainties raised by many policy actors, including the WHO, such as, "Do antibodies confer immunity and, if so, for how long? How accurate is…
Probability/Bayes | Test Performance | Technology Assessment | Infectious Diseases | Health Systems | Policy/Regulation | Government/Law | Health/Medicine | Global | North America -
ArticlePublication 2020Bayes' Theorem, COVID-19, and Screening Tests
This article reviews the implications of increased testing for COVID-19 using reverse transcriptase polymerase chain …
This article reviews the implications of increased testing for COVID-19 using reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (rRT-PCR) through the application of Bayes’ Theorem for three hypothetical, stylized case scenarios. The scenarios involve three patients with a low, moderate, and high pre-test probability of COVID-19 infection. The category of low probability would include "asymptomatic individuals in a presumed low prevalence environment" and might vary from 10 to 20%. The category of moderate probability would include "individuals…
Probability/Bayes | Test Performance | Infectious Diseases | Clinical Care | Health/Medicine -
ArticlePublication 2020Interpreting COVID-19 Test Results: A Bayesian Approach
This article considers the following question with respect to interpreting the results of polymerase chain reaction …
This article considers the following question with respect to interpreting the results of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assays from nasal and pharyngeal swabs for COVID-19 to inform clinical decision making: "While a positive result in an acutely ill patient is straightforward, how should physicians interpret negative tests in patients with suspected COVID-19 infection?" Using an assumption of near-perfect specificity of PCR assays for COVID-19, the authors acknowledge the uncertainty of test sensitivity. They consider two clinical scenarios…
Probability/Bayes | Test Performance | Infectious Diseases | Health/Medicine | Science/Technology | Global -
Resource PackPublication, Teaching Resource 2022Resource Pack: Decision Analysis & Childhood Obesity
This resource pack on childhood obesity was curated by the Center for Health Decision Science …
This resource pack on childhood obesity was curated by the Center for Health Decision Science to showcase existing cost-effectiveness analyses and motivate students, educators, and others to pursue new applications of decision science methods to the public health challenge of obesity. The resource pack was motivated by the NEJM article entitled Simulation of Growth Trajectories of Childhood Obesity into Adulthood published on November 30, 2017, with CHDS co-authors Zach Ward and Stephen Resch. Citation: Ward Z, Long M,…
Costing Methods | Health Outcomes | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Child/Nutrition | Chronic Disease/Risk | Policy/Regulation | Clinical Care | Culture/Society | Economics/Finance | Food/Agriculture | Health/Medicine | 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…
Health Outcomes | Evidence Synthesis | Mathematical Models | Microsimulation | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Child/Nutrition | Chronic Disease/Risk | Policy/Regulation | Business/Industry | Economics/Finance | Food/Agriculture | Government/Law | Health/Medicine | North America | Latin America & Caribbean | Europe | Oceania -
ArticlePublication 2020Translating Population Evidence to Individual Patients
In this paper, the authors describe the differences in population level outcomes compared to individual …
In this paper, the authors describe the differences in population level outcomes compared to individual patients and discuss ways that these are differences. The authors cover topics including the difference between relative and absolute risk and benefit. They use an example of the decision to start anticoagulation in new-onset atrial fibrillation to discuss translating population level evidence to treatment of an individual. These options include generalizability, subgroup analysis, prediction rules, following response to therapy, and even…
Test Performance | Evidence Synthesis | Health Systems | Clinical Care | Health/Medicine -
ArticlePublication 2020Clinical Decision Making: Using a Diagnostic Test
This article is part of a 6-part series on clinical decision making. The authors use …
This article is part of a 6-part series on clinical decision making. The authors use two clinical examples to review the principles of interpreting diagnostic test results. They outline an approach that can be used to determine how to select and apply tests and their results to the practice of internal medicine. Topics covered in the two case studies include sensitivity and specificity, positive predictive and negative predictive value of tests, and how to estimate…
Probability/Bayes | Test Performance | Clinical Care | Health/Medicine -
DataPublication 2019HDR Country Profile: Afghanistan
This country profile on Afghanistan is published by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Each …
This country profile on Afghanistan is published by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Each online country profile also links to a downloadable data table and a briefing note for its country. The Human Development Report Office releases data each year, including the Human Development Index (HDI), the Inequality-Adjusted Human Development Index (IHDI), the Gender Development Index (GDI), the Gender Inequality Index (GII), and the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI). These indices reflect the UNDP human…
Health Outcomes | Evidence Synthesis | Social Determinants | Health Systems | Climate/Environment | Economics/Finance | Education/Labor | Health/Medicine | Science/Technology | Global | Asia & Pacific