Resources Repository
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ArticlePublication 2021Health Benefit Package Design
Policymakers face difficult choices over which health interventions to publicly finance. This article presents an …
Policymakers face difficult choices over which health interventions to publicly finance. This article presents an approach to health benefits package design that accommodates explicit tradeoffs between improvements in health and provision of financial risk protection. The authors designed a mathematical optimization model to balance gains in health and financial risk protection across candidate interventions when publicly financed. The optimal subset of interventions selected for inclusion was determined with bi-criterion integer programming conditional on a budget…
Priority Setting/Ethics | Mathematical Models | Global -
ArticlePublication 2021Rational Policymaking during a Pandemic
Policymaking during a pandemic can be extremely challenging. As COVID-19 is a new disease and …
Policymaking during a pandemic can be extremely challenging. As COVID-19 is a new disease and its global impacts are unprecedented, decisions are taken in a highly uncertain, complex, and rapidly changing environment. In such a context, in which human lives and the economy are at stake, the authors argue that using ideas and constructs from modern decision theory, even informally, will make policymaking a more responsible and transparent process.
Priority Setting/Ethics | Decision Theory | Global | Infectious Diseases | Policy/Regulation | Government/Law | Health/Medicine | Science/Technology -
ArticlePublication 2018Consequences of a Cigarette Price Increase in 13 Middle Income Countries
This study used extended cost-effectiveness analysis to examine the impact of a 50% increase in …
This study used extended cost-effectiveness analysis to examine the impact of a 50% increase in market prices of cigarettes on health, poverty, and financial protection for men in 13 middle income countries. A 50% increase in cigarette prices would lead to about 450 million years of life gained across the 13 countries from smoking cessation, with half of these in China. Across all countries, men in the bottom income group would gain 6.7 times more…
Priority Setting/Ethics | Mathematical Models | Global | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Chronic Disease/Risk | Social Determinants | Policy/Regulation | Health/Medicine -
ArticlePublication 2018Poverty Reduction & Equity Benefits of Measles, Rotavirus and Pneumococcal Vaccines in LMICs
This study uses the extended cost effectiveness analysis (ECEA) to evaluate the impact of immunization …
This study uses the extended cost effectiveness analysis (ECEA) to evaluate the impact of immunization against measles, severe pneumococcal disease and severe rotavirus for birth cohorts vaccinated over 2016–2030 for three scenarios in 41 Gavi-eligible countries: no immunization, current immunization coverage forecasts and the current immunization coverage enhanced with funding support. Following the distribution of the cases by socioeconomic group, the study found that the number of catastrophic health costs (CHC) cases attributable to measles,…
Priority Setting/Ethics | Mathematical Models | Global | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Infectious Diseases | Child/Nutrition | Health/Medicine -
ArticlePublication 2017Policy Makers, the International Community and the Population: Case Study on HIV/AIDS
A four-period game is developed between a policy maker, the international community, and the population. …
A four-period game is developed between a policy maker, the international community, and the population. This research supplements, through implementing strategic interaction, earlier research analyzing "one player at a time." The first two players distribute funds between preventing and treating diseases. The population reacts by degree of risky behavior which may cause no disease, disease contraction, recovery, sickness/death. More funds to prevention implies less disease contraction but higher death rate given disease contraction. The cost…
Priority Setting/Ethics | Mathematical Models | Global | Decision Psychology | Infectious Diseases | Health Systems | Global Governance | Economics/Finance | Government/Law | Health/Medicine -
ReviewPublication 2016Decision Support for Infectious Disease Control
This report from RAND reviews decision-support tools, including models and nonmodeling approaches, that are relevant to …
This report from RAND reviews decision-support tools, including models and nonmodeling approaches, that are relevant to infectious disease prevention, detection, and response and aligns these tools with real-world policy questions that the tools can help address. This overview is designed to help modelers and other technical experts understand the questions that policymakers will raise and the decisions they must make. The report also presents policymakers with the capabilities and limitations of the different tools that may…
Mathematical Models | Dynamic Transmission | Global | State-Transition | Microsimulation | Dynamic Simulation | Infectious Diseases | Global Governance | Government/Law | Health/Medicine | Military/Defense -
ArticlePublication 2011Dynamic Policies for Controlling Spread of Emerging Infections
This paper illustrates the design and implementation of a dynamic health policy for the control …
This paper illustrates the design and implementation of a dynamic health policy for the control of a novel strain of influenza, where two types of interventions are assumed to be available during the epidemic: (1) vaccines and antiviral drugs, and (2) transmission reducing measures, such as social distancing or mask use, that may be turned "on" or "off" repeatedly during the course of epidemic. A modeling approach is described for developing dynamic health policies that allow…
Mathematical Models | Dynamic Transmission | Global | Dynamic Simulation | Infectious Diseases | Health Systems | Policy/Regulation | Health/Medicine | Science/Technology -
ReviewPublication 2008Cost-Effectiveness of Vaccination: Review of Modelling Approaches
This review examines the modelling approaches used in cost-effectiveness analyses (CEAs) of vaccination programs. After …
This review examines the modelling approaches used in cost-effectiveness analyses (CEAs) of vaccination programs. After overviewing the key attributes of models used in CEAs, a framework for categorizing theoretical models is presented. Categories are based on three main attributes: static/dynamic; stochastic/deterministic; and aggregate/individual based.
Mathematical Models | Dynamic Transmission | Global | State-Transition | Microsimulation | Dynamic Simulation | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Infectious Diseases | Health/Medicine | Science/Technology -
ArticlePublication 2023Simulation-Based Comparative Effectiveness Analysis of Policies to Improve Global Maternal Health Outcomes
The Sustainable Development Goals include a target to reduce the global maternal mortality ratio (MMR) …
The Sustainable Development Goals include a target to reduce the global maternal mortality ratio (MMR) to less than 70 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births by 2030, with no individual country exceeding 140. However, on current trends the goals are unlikely to be met. The authors used an empirically calibrated Global Maternal Health microsimulation model, which simulates individual women in 200 countries and territories to evaluate the impact of different interventions and strategies from 2022…
Mathematical Models | Global | Health Outcomes | Microsimulation | Calibration/Validation | Maternal/Reproductive Health | Health Systems | Clinical Care | Health/Medicine