Resources Repository
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Working PaperPublication 2015Benefit-Cost Analysis and the Cities
This paper provides a short introduction to the use of benefit-cost analysis to assess interventions …
This paper provides a short introduction to the use of benefit-cost analysis to assess interventions undertaken at the city or municipal level. It introduces the concepts that underlie the conduct of benefit-cost analysis, describes the major analytic components, and discusses how to tailor the analysis to the characteristics of the policy and the resources available. It concludes with a list of references for those interested in learning more.
Benefit-Cost Analysis | Decision Analysis | Government/Law | Culture/Society | Preferences/Values | Priority Setting/Ethics | Social Determinants | Environmental Health | Policy/Regulation | Climate/Environment | Economics/Finance | North America | Critical Thinking/Analysis -
ReviewPublication 2001Modeling for Health Care and Other Policy Decisions: Uses, Roles and Validity
This is a review article of the role of modeling approaches to guide decision making …
This is a review article of the role of modeling approaches to guide decision making in health care and other domains. The role of models to support recommendations on the cost-effective use of medical technologies and pharmaceuticals is controversial. At the heart of the controversy is the degree to which experimental or other empirical evidence should be required prior to model use. The authors argue that the controversy stems in part from a misconception that…
Mathematical Models | Technology Assessment | Government/Law | Business/Industry | Priority Setting/Ethics | Evidence Synthesis | Environmental Health | Health Systems | Policy/Regulation | Climate/Environment | Economics/Finance | Energy/Engineering | Health/Medicine | North America -
ReviewPublication 2016Using Economic Evidence to Set Healthcare Priorities in LMIC
Policy makers in low-income and lower-middle-income countries (LMICs) are increasingly looking to develop ‘evidence-based’ frameworks …
Policy makers in low-income and lower-middle-income countries (LMICs) are increasingly looking to develop ‘evidence-based’ frameworks for identifying priority health interventions. This paper synthesizes and appraises the literature on methodological frameworks – which incorporate economic evaluation evidence – for the purpose of setting healthcare priorities in LMICs. A systematic search of Embase, MEDLINE, Econlit and PubMed identified 3968 articles with a further 21 articles identified through manual searching. A total of 36 papers were eligible for inclusion.…
Technology Assessment | Benefit-Cost Analysis | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Government/Law | Priority Setting/Ethics | Health Systems | Policy/Regulation | Economics/Finance | Health/Medicine | Sub-Saharan Africa | Middle East & North Africa | Latin America & Caribbean | Asia & Pacific -
ReviewPublication 2006Ethical Issues in Resource Allocation, Research, and New Product Development
Ethical dilemmas arising in setting priorities among interventions and among individuals in need of care …
Ethical dilemmas arising in setting priorities among interventions and among individuals in need of care are most acute when needs are great and resources few. This chapter from the Disease Control Priorities in Developing Countries 2nd edition addresses some of these concerns, identifying some of the principal ethical issues that arise in the development and allocation of effective interventions for developing countries and discussing some alternative resolutions. Resource allocation in health and elsewhere should satisfy two main…
Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Government/Law | Culture/Society | Science/Technology | Preferences/Values | Priority Setting/Ethics | Health/Medicine -
ReviewPublication 2006Public Health Policy for Cervical Cancer Prevention: Decision Science, Economic Evaluation, & Mathematical Modeling
Several factors are changing the landscape of cervical cancer control, including a better understanding of …
Several factors are changing the landscape of cervical cancer control, including a better understanding of the natural history of human papillomavirus (HPV), reliable assays for detecting high-risk HPV infections, and a soon to be available HPV-16/18 vaccine. There are important differences in the relevant policy questions for different settings. By synthesizing and integrating the best available data, the use of modeling in a decision analytic framework can identify those factors most likely to influence outcomes,…
Mathematical Models | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Decision Analysis | Science/Technology | Infectious Diseases | Chronic Disease/Risk | Economics/Finance | Health/Medicine | Global -
ReviewPublication 1982Decision Analysis: An Overview
This article, written for the non-decision analyst, describes what decision analysis is, what it can …
This article, written for the non-decision analyst, describes what decision analysis is, what it can and cannot do, why one should care to do this, and how one does it. Keeney describes decision analysis as "a formalization of common sense for decision problems which are too complex for informal use of common sense." He provides a more technical definition also, describing decision analysis as "a philosophy, articulated by a set of logical axioms, and a methodology…
Decision Analysis | Government/Law | Business/Industry | Science/Technology | Decision Theory | Preferences/Values | Policy/Regulation | Economics/Finance | Energy/Engineering | Health/Medicine | Military/Defense -
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 | Decision Analysis | Business/Industry | Decision Theory | Preferences/Values | Economics/Finance | Health/Medicine | Military/Defense | North America -
ReviewPublication 2015Medicare's Use of CEA for Prevention (But Not Treatment)
Medicare currently pays for 23 preventive services in its benefits package, the majority of which …
Medicare currently pays for 23 preventive services in its benefits package, the majority of which were added since 2005. In the past decade, the program has transformed from one essentially administering treatment claims, to one increasingly focused on health promotion and maintenance. What is largely unappreciated is the role cost-effectiveness analysis has played in the coverage of preventive services. This study reviews the role of cost-effectiveness analysis in Medicare coverage of preventive services and contrast it…
Technology Assessment | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Government/Law | Priority Setting/Ethics | Infectious Diseases | Child/Nutrition | Chronic Disease/Risk | Health Systems | Policy/Regulation | Economics/Finance | Health/Medicine | North America -
ReviewPublication 2013Valuing the Economic Benefits of Complex Interventions
This is a review of economic evaluations of complex health interventions. Complex interventions, involving interlinked …
This is a review of economic evaluations of complex health interventions. Complex interventions, involving interlinked packages of care, challenge the application of current methods of economic evaluation that focus on measuring only health gain. The authors find that complex interventions may be problematic on two levels. First, the complexity means the intervention may not fit into one of the current appraisal systems, and/or second, maximizing health is not the only objective. This paper discusses the…
Decision Analysis | Government/Law | Science/Technology | Preferences/Values | Health Systems | Policy/Regulation | Economics/Finance | Health/Medicine | Europe