Resources Repository
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ReportPublication 2015Chapter 4: Cervical Cancer
This chapter focuses on the possibility of primary prevention of cervical cancer as a result …
This chapter focuses on the possibility of primary prevention of cervical cancer as a result of the introduction of two commercially available vaccines against human papillomavirus (HPV). Few low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) have initiated or sustained cytology-based cervical cancer prevention programs, and these countries experience very high incidence and mortality rates. Fortunately, alternative strategies to prevent cervical cancer have been investigated and extensively evaluated in these settings. The authors report findings from cost-effectiveness analyses…
Mathematical Models | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Infectious Diseases | Chronic Disease/Risk | Health Systems | Clinical Care | Health/Medicine | Science/Technology | Global -
ReviewPublication 2015Agent-Based Models and Microsimulation
This article reviews the principles and applications of agent-based models (ABMs). ABMs are computational models …
This article reviews the principles and applications of agent-based models (ABMs). ABMs are computational models used to simulate the actions and interactions of “agents” within a system. Usually, each agent has a set of rules for how he or she responds to the environment and to other agents. These models are used to gain insight into the emergent behavior of complex systems with many agents, in which the emergent behavior depends upon the micro-level behavior…
Mathematical Models | State-Transition | Microsimulation | Dynamic Simulation | Energy/Engineering | Health/Medicine | Military/Defense | Science/Technology -
Tutorial/PrimerPublication, Teaching Resource 2015Calibration of Complex Models through Bayesian Evidence Synthesis: A Tutorial
This tutorial demonstrates how to implement a Bayesian synthesis of diverse sources of evidence to …
This tutorial demonstrates how to implement a Bayesian synthesis of diverse sources of evidence to calibrate the parameters of a complex model. To illustrate these methods, the authors demonstrate how a previously developed Markov model for the progression of human papillomavirus (HPV-16) infection was rebuilt in a Bayesian framework. Transition probabilities between states of disease severity are inferred indirectly from cross-sectional observations of prevalence of HPV-16 and HPV-16–related disease by age, cervical cancer incidence, and…
Calibration/Validation | Infectious Diseases -
ReportPublication 2015Modeling to Improve Policy Decisions in the Americas: Noncommunicable Diseases
In the Region of the Americas, noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) are a clear threat not only …
In the Region of the Americas, noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) are a clear threat not only to human health, but also to a country’s economic development and growth. The evidence on both of these counts is compelling. In 2012, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancers, chronic respiratory conditions including asthma, and other NCDs were the cause of 4.5 million deaths in the Americas. Of that total number, 1.5 million of them were premature, occurring among people aged 30-69…
Mathematical Models | Priority Setting/Ethics | Costing Methods | State-Transition | Microsimulation | Decision Analysis | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Chronic Disease/Risk | Mental Health | Health/Medicine | Latin America & Caribbean -
BookPublication 2014Decision Making in Health and Medicine: Integrating Evidence and Values
Decision making in health care involves consideration of a complex set of diagnostic, therapeutic and …
Decision making in health care involves consideration of a complex set of diagnostic, therapeutic and prognostic uncertainties. Medical therapies have side effects, surgical interventions may lead to complications, and diagnostic tests can produce misleading results. Furthermore, patient values and service costs must be considered. Decisions in clinical and health policy require careful weighing of risks and benefits and are commonly a trade-off of competing objectives: maximizing quality of life vs maximizing life expectancy vs minimizing…
Mathematical Models | Probability/Bayes | Preferences/Values | Costing Methods | Health Outcomes | Test Performance | Value of Information | Decision Analysis | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Health Systems | Economics/Finance | Government/Law | Health/Medicine | Global | North America | Europe | Graduate | Doctoral | Professional | Critical Thinking/Analysis | Decision Making/Leadership | Quantitative Literacy -
ArticlePublication 2014Rise and Fall of HIV in High-Prevalence Countries: A Challenge for Mathematical Modeling
Several countries with generalized, high-prevalence HIV epidemics, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa, have experienced rapid declines …
Several countries with generalized, high-prevalence HIV epidemics, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa, have experienced rapid declines in transmission. These HIV epidemics, often with rapid onsets, have generally been attributed to a combination of factors related to high-risk sexual behavior. The subsequent declines in these countries began prior to widespread therapy or implementation of any other major biomedical prevention. This change has been construed as evidence of behavior change, often on the basis of mathematical models, but…
Mathematical Models | Health Outcomes | Infectious Diseases | Health/Medicine | Sub-Saharan Africa -
ReviewPublication 2014Markov Modeling & Discrete Event Simulation in Health Care: Systematic Comparison
This review assesses whether the use of Markov modeling (MM) or discrete event simulation (DES) …
This review assesses whether the use of Markov modeling (MM) or discrete event simulation (DES) for cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA) may alter healthcare resource allocation decisions. A systematic literature search and review of empirical and non-empirical studies comparing MM and DES techniques used in the CEA of healthcare technologies was conducted. The primary advantages described for DES over MM were the ability to model queuing for limited resources, capture individual patient histories, accommodate complexity and uncertainty,…
Mathematical Models | State-Transition | Microsimulation | Health Systems | Clinical Care | Health/Medicine -
ArticlePublication 2014Indemics: Interactive Computing Framework for Data Intensive Epidemic Modeling
The design and prototype implementation of Indemics (Interactive EpidemicSimulation) is described, a modeling environment utilizing …
The design and prototype implementation of Indemics (Interactive EpidemicSimulation) is described, a modeling environment utilizing high-performance computing technologies for supporting complex epidemic simulations. Indemics can support policy analysts and epidemiologists interested in planning and control of pandemics. Indemics goes beyond traditional epidemic simulations by providing a way to represent and analyze policy-based as well as individual-based adaptive interventions. Users can also stop the simulation at any point, assess the state of the simulated system, and…
Mathematical Models | Dynamic Transmission | Infectious Diseases | Health/Medicine | Science/Technology -
ArticlePublication 2013Validation and Calibration of a Simulation Model of Pediatric HIV Infection
The authors developed a microsimulation model of pediatric HIV disease progression using the Cost-Effectiveness of …
The authors developed a microsimulation model of pediatric HIV disease progression using the Cost-Effectiveness of Preventing AIDS Complications (CEPAC) model framework. This CEPAC-Pediatric model was then validated by varying CD4 data and comparing the corresponding model-generated survival curves to empirical survival curves obtained from the International Epidemiologic Database to Evaluate AIDS (IeDEA). The model was calibrated to other African countries by systematically varying immunologic and HIV mortality-related input parameters. In the calibration analyses, the model-generated…
Calibration/Validation | Microsimulation | Infectious Diseases | Child/Nutrition | Health/Medicine | Sub-Saharan Africa