Resources Repository
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ArticlePublication 2023Benefits and Costs of COVID-19 Vaccine Mandates
Written mid-pandemic, this article evaluates the direct costs and health benefits of requiring COVID-19 vaccinations …
Written mid-pandemic, this article evaluates the direct costs and health benefits of requiring COVID-19 vaccinations for U.S. federal employees and healthcare and private sector workers. These mandates were controversial and some were halted by litigation. If they had been implemented as intended, the net benefits would depend on the course of the pandemic. If a more transmissible variant (such as Omicron) emerges, the net benefits may be large. If the pandemic instead fades, the benefits…
Mathematical Models | State-Transition | Government/Law | Health/Medicine | Business/Industry | Benefit-Cost Analysis | Infectious Diseases | Policy/Regulation | Economics/Finance | North America -
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…
Evidence Synthesis | Mathematical Models | Government/Law | Health/Medicine | Business/Industry | Priority Setting/Ethics | Technology Assessment | Environmental Health | Health Systems | Policy/Regulation | Climate/Environment | Economics/Finance | Energy/Engineering | North America -
ArticlePublication 2022Vaccinations versus Lockdowns to Prevent COVID-19 Mortality
This analysis estimated the costs associated with preventing Covid-19 deaths by vaccinations versus lockdowns. Publicly …
This analysis estimated the costs associated with preventing Covid-19 deaths by vaccinations versus lockdowns. Publicly available datasets from the Israeli Ministry of Health were used to model the parameters of the pandemic in Israel. The Oxford COVID-19 Government Response Tracker was used for quantitative data on government policies. Data on the Israeli economy were taken from the Central Bureau of Statistics. The models demonstrate that the first lockdown prevented 1022 COVID-19 deaths at the cost…
Decision Analysis | State-Transition | Government/Law | Health/Medicine | Decision Theory | Costing Methods | Health Outcomes | Infectious Diseases | Policy/Regulation | Economics/Finance | Middle East & North Africa -
ArticlePublication 2020Infectious Disease Pandemic Planning and Response: Incorporating Decision Analysis
During a pandemic, decisions must be made under rapidly changing, uncertain conditions. Despite advances in …
During a pandemic, decisions must be made under rapidly changing, uncertain conditions. Despite advances in analytical methods for gaining early situational awareness (i.e., of a disease’s transmissibility and severity) and for predicting the likely effectiveness of interventions, a major gap exists globally in terms of integrating this information in policy documents. The authors argue that mathematical and statistical models are important tools for pandemic planning and response. Once an outbreak of pandemic potential has been…
Mathematical Models | Decision Analysis | Government/Law | Health/Medicine | Health Systems | Global -
ArticlePublication 2021COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy: The Five C's to Tackle Behavioral and Sociodemographic Factors
Reversing and mitigating the ongoing damage associated with the COVID-19 pandemic requires that 60-70% of …
Reversing and mitigating the ongoing damage associated with the COVID-19 pandemic requires that 60-70% of the world’s population needs to be vaccinated. This article acknowledges that hesitancy is one of the most substantial hurdles to vaccination uptake at levels that would achieve herd immunity. Authors define hesitancy as “a delay in acceptance or refusal despite availability.” Five factors are proposed to tackle vaccine hesitancy, referred to as the five “C’s”: Confidence (importance, safety and efficacy…
Evidence Synthesis | Decision Psychology | Health/Medicine | Science/Technology | Preferences/Values | Health Outcomes | Infectious Diseases | Social Determinants | Culture/Society | North America -
ArticlePublication 2017Modeled Health Benefits of a SSB Tax across Different Socioeconomic Groups in Australia
This analysis assessed the potential cost-effectiveness, health gains, and financial impacts of a 20% sugar-sweetened …
This analysis assessed the potential cost-effectiveness, health gains, and financial impacts of a 20% sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) tax for Australia. Australia-specific price elasticities were used to predict decreases in SSB consumption for each socio-economic quintile. Changes in body mass index (BMI) were based on SSB consumption, BMI from the Australian Health Survey, and energy balance equations. Markov cohort models were used to estimate the health-adjusted life years (HALYs) gained, healthcare costs saved, and out-of-pocket costs…
Mathematical Models | State-Transition | Government/Law | Health/Medicine | Chronic Disease/Risk | Policy/Regulation | Economics/Finance | Food/Agriculture | Oceania -
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…
Mathematical Models | Decision Psychology | Government/Law | Health/Medicine | Priority Setting/Ethics | Infectious Diseases | Health Systems | Global Governance | Economics/Finance | Global -
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 | State-Transition | Government/Law | Health/Medicine | Dynamic Transmission | Microsimulation | Dynamic Simulation | Infectious Diseases | Global Governance | Military/Defense | Global -
ArticlePublication 2015Cancer Models and Real-World Data: Better Together
Decision-analytic models synthesize available data on disease burden and intervention effectiveness to project estimates of …
Decision-analytic models synthesize available data on disease burden and intervention effectiveness to project estimates of the long-term consequences of care. While models have been influential in informing US cancer screening guidelines under ideal conditions, incorporating detailed data on real-world screening practice has been limited given the complexity of screening processes and behaviors throughout diverse health delivery systems in the United States. The authors describe the synergies that exist between decision-analytic models and health care utilization…
Evidence Synthesis | Mathematical Models | Health/Medicine | Science/Technology | Calibration/Validation | Chronic Disease/Risk | Health Systems | Clinical Care | North America