Resources Repository
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ArticlePublication 2007Making the Right Decision: Benjamin Franklin in 1736
This paper applies a decision analytic approach to a past decision made by Benjamin Franklin with regard to …
This paper applies a decision analytic approach to a past decision made by Benjamin Franklin with regard to inoculating his son against smallpox. Benjamin Franklin in his autobiography said: “In 1736 I lost one of my sons, a fine boy of four years old, by the smallpox taken in the common way. I long regretted bitterly and still regret that I had not given it to him by inoculation. This I mention for the sake of the parents who…
Decision Analysis | Health/Medicine | Infectious Diseases -
ArticlePublication 2007Including Boys in an HPV Vaccination Program: A CEA in a Low-Resource Setting
This paper looks at the cost-effectiveness of including boys vs girls alone in a pre-adolescent vaccination …
This paper looks at the cost-effectiveness of including boys vs girls alone in a pre-adolescent vaccination program against human papillomavirus (HPV) types 16 and 18 in Brazil. Using demographic, epidemiological, and cancer data from Brazil, the authors developed a dynamic transmission model of HPV infection between males and females. Model-projected reductions in HPV incidence under different vaccination scenarios were applied to a stochastic model of cervical carcinogenesis to project lifetime costs and benefits. They found that at 90%…
Calibration/Validation | Health/Medicine | Microsimulation | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Infectious Diseases | Chronic Disease/Risk | Clinical Care | Latin America & Caribbean -
ArticlePublication 2007Modeling HPV and Cervical Cancer in the U.S. for Analyses of Screening and Vaccination
This paper discusses a model of human papillomavirus (HPV) and cervical cancer that incorporates uncertainty …
This paper discusses a model of human papillomavirus (HPV) and cervical cancer that incorporates uncertainty about the natural history of disease that was used to provide quantitative insight into U.S. policy choices for cervical cancer prevention. The authors developed a stochastic microsimulation of cervical cancer that distinguishes different HPV types by their incidence, clearance, persistence, and progression. For each set of sampled input parameters, likelihood-based goodness-of-fit (GOF) scores were computed based on comparisons between model-predicted…
Calibration/Validation | Health/Medicine | Microsimulation | Infectious Diseases | Chronic Disease/Risk | Clinical Care | Science/Technology | North America -
ArticlePublication 2007Decision Analysis: A Personal Account of How It Got Started and Evolved
In this chapter, Howard Raiffa discusses the evolution of decision analysis and his personal involvement …
In this chapter, Howard Raiffa discusses the evolution of decision analysis and his personal involvement in its development. He describes the early days of Operations Research (OR) in the late 1940s with its approach to complex, strategic decision making. After reading John von Neumann and Oskar Morgenstern’s Theory of Games and Economic Behavior (1947) and Abraham Wald’s two books (1947, 1950), he became involved in statistical decision theory. A few years later, after reading Leonard…
Decision Analysis | Health/Medicine | Decision Theory | Probability/Bayes | Preferences/Values | Operations Research | Business/Industry | Economics/Finance | Energy/Engineering -
ArticlePublication 2007Multiparameter Calibration of a Natural History Model of Cervical Cancer
This paper presents a two-step approach to model calibration of a comprehensive natural history model …
This paper presents a two-step approach to model calibration of a comprehensive natural history model of human papillomavirus (HPV) and cervical cancer. Using primary epidemiologic data from a longitudinal study of women in Brazil, a plausible range for each input parameter was identified that would produce model output within the 95% confidence intervals of the data. The authors then performed a simultaneous search over all input parameters to identify parameter sets that produced output consistent…
Calibration/Validation | Health/Medicine | Mathematical Models | Microsimulation | Infectious Diseases | Chronic Disease/Risk | Latin America & Caribbean -
ArticlePublication 2006Can Discrete Event Simulation be of Use in Modeling Major Depression?
This article, published in Cost Effectiveness and Resource Allocation, reviews the published literature on Markov …
This article, published in Cost Effectiveness and Resource Allocation, reviews the published literature on Markov models in depression and identified potential limitations in using this particular modelling approach in this disease area. Additionally, the authors develop a “Discrete Event Simulation” (DES) model to investigate the benefits and drawbacks of this simulation method compared with Markov modelling techniques. The findings of this study indicate that the most important limitation of using Markov models in depression is…
Decision Analysis | Health/Medicine | State-Transition | Microsimulation | Mental Health -
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,…
Decision Analysis | Health/Medicine | Mathematical Models | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Infectious Diseases | Chronic Disease/Risk | Economics/Finance | Science/Technology | Global -
ReviewPublication 2004Decision Analysis Applications in Operations Research
This article reviews trends and developments in decision analysis applications, based primarily on a survey of …
This article reviews trends and developments in decision analysis applications, based primarily on a survey of decision analysis applications published in the period 1990–2001 in major English-language operations research and closely related journals. It serves as a guide to those interested in recent applications in specific areas or in applications that illustrate the use of particular methods. The authors identify and discuss noteworthy trends in, and developments affecting, published applications, including those in computer software and…
Decision Analysis | Health/Medicine | Operations Research | Business/Industry -
ArticlePublication 2002Empirically Calibrated Model of Hepatitis C Virus Infection in the United States
This article presents an epidemiologic model of hepatitis C in the United States. The authors …
This article presents an epidemiologic model of hepatitis C in the United States. The authors used empirical calibration of model parameters to gain insights into uncertainty in the natural history of hepatitis C and to improve future projections. The authors identified model inputs by way of a systematic review. Model simulations were conducted and model predictions were compared with epidemiologic data on infection prevalence and mortality from liver cancer. Goodness-of-fit criteria were used to identify…
Calibration/Validation | Health/Medicine | Mathematical Models | State-Transition | Infectious Diseases | Chronic Disease/Risk | North America