Resources Repository
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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…
Preferences/Values | Decision Theory | Decision Analysis | Operations Research | Business/Industry | Economics/Finance | Health/Medicine | Military/Defense | North America -
ReviewPublication 2016Strengthening Cost-Effectiveness Analysis for Public Health Policy
Many important opportunities to improve health lie outside the health sector and involve improving the …
Many important opportunities to improve health lie outside the health sector and involve improving the conditions in which we live and work: safe design and maintenance of roads, bridges, train tracks, and airports; control of environmental pollutants; occupational safety; healthy buildings; a safe and healthy food supply; safe manufacture of consumer products; a healthy social environment; and others. Faced with the overwhelming array of possibilities, U.S. decision makers need help identifying those that can contribute the…
Preferences/Values | Priority Setting/Ethics | Costing Methods | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Social Determinants | Environmental Health | Health Systems | Policy/Regulation | Climate/Environment | Economics/Finance | Food/Agriculture | Health/Medicine | North America -
ReviewPublication 2014Valuing Vaccination
Vaccination has led to remarkable health gains over the last century. However, large coverage gaps …
Vaccination has led to remarkable health gains over the last century. However, large coverage gaps remain, which will require significant financial resources and political will to address. In recent years, a compelling line of inquiry has established the economic benefits of health, at both the individual and aggregate levels. Most existing economic evaluations of particular health interventions fail to account for this new research, leading to potentially sizable undervaluation of those interventions. In line with…
Preferences/Values | Priority Setting/Ethics | Costing Methods | Benefit-Cost Analysis | Infectious Diseases | Health Systems | Economics/Finance | Health/Medicine | Global -
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…
Preferences/Values | Decision Analysis | Health Systems | Policy/Regulation | Economics/Finance | Government/Law | Health/Medicine | Science/Technology | Europe -
ReviewPublication 2012Modeling Preventative Strategies Against HPV-Related Disease in Developed Countries
This review article is part of a special supplement on “Comprehensive Control of HPV Infections …
This review article is part of a special supplement on “Comprehensive Control of HPV Infections and Related Diseases.” At the time of its writing, prophylactic vaccination against human papillomavirus (HPV) in pre-adolescent females had been introduced in most developed countries, supported by modeled evaluations that had almost universally found vaccination of pre-adolescent females to be cost-effective. Vaccination of pre-adolescent males had been shown to be cost-effective at a cost per vaccinated individual of ~US$400-500 if…
Mathematical Models | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Chronic Disease/Risk | Social Determinants | Health Systems | Health/Medicine | Global -
ReviewPublication 2011Dynamic Microsimulation Models for Health Outcomes: A Review
This review article presents an overview of microsimulation modeling, focusing on the development and application …
This review article presents an overview of microsimulation modeling, focusing on the development and application of these models for health policy questions. Microsimulation models for health outcomes simulate individual event histories associated with key components of a disease process; these simulated life histories can be aggregated to estimate population-level effects of treatment on disease outcomes and the comparative effectiveness of treatments. The authors argue that methodological improvements in modeling approaches have been slowed by the…
Microsimulation | Health Outcomes | Calibration/Validation | Health/Medicine -
ReviewPublication 2010Validation of Population-Based Disease Simulation Models: A Review
This article develops a framework for validating population-based chronic disease simulation models, and reviews the …
This article develops a framework for validating population-based chronic disease simulation models, and reviews the principles and methods for such models. While computer simulation models are used increasingly to support public health research and policy, questions about their quality persist. Based on the review, the authors formulated a set of recommendations for gathering evidence of model credibility. They find that evidence of model credibility derives from examining: 1) the process of model development, 2) the…
Mathematical Models | Calibration/Validation | Chronic Disease/Risk | Social Determinants | Health/Medicine -
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…
Preferences/Values | Priority Setting/Ethics | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Culture/Society | Government/Law | Health/Medicine | Science/Technology -
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 | Decision Analysis | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Infectious Diseases | Chronic Disease/Risk | Economics/Finance | Health/Medicine | Science/Technology | Global