Resources Repository
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ReportPublication 2015Improving Diagnosis in Health Care
Getting the right diagnosis is a key aspect of health care - it provides an …
Getting the right diagnosis is a key aspect of health care - it provides an explanation of a patient's health problem and informs subsequent health care decisions. The diagnostic process is a complex, collaborative activity that involves clinical reasoning and information gathering to determine a patient's health problem. This report, Improving Diagnosis in Health Care, explains that diagnostic errors-inaccurate or delayed diagnoses-persist throughout all settings of care and continue to harm an unacceptable number of patients.…
Health/Medicine | Probability/Bayes | Health Outcomes | Test Performance | Value of Information | Health Systems | North America -
ReportPublication 2014Redirecting Innovation in U.S. Health Care
This report from RAND Health explores methods of reducing health care spending and developing medical …
This report from RAND Health explores methods of reducing health care spending and developing medical products that provide cost value with health benefits. It summarizes literature and explores case studies to provide policy recommendations to meet these goals. It identifies a wide range of factors that affect the costs, risks, and rewards of medical product invention. Some of these features include treatment creep, the medical arms race, costs and risks of FDA approval, limited reward…
Health/Medicine | Costing Methods | Health Outcomes | Evidence Synthesis | Health Systems | Policy/Regulation | Economics/Finance | Government/Law | Science/Technology | North America -
ArticlePublication 2009Cost Effectiveness Analysis of Including Boys in a HPV Vaccination Program in the U.S.
This article reports on a societal-perspective cost effectiveness analysis of including preadolescent boys in a …
This article reports on a societal-perspective cost effectiveness analysis of including preadolescent boys in a routine human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination program for preadolescent girls. The analysis included girls and boys aged 12 years; interventions included HPV vaccination of girls alone and of girls and boys in the context of screening for cervical cancer. The authors found that with 75% vaccination coverage and an assumption of complete, lifelong vaccine efficacy, routine HPV vaccination of 12-year-old girls…
Microsimulation | Calibration/Validation | Dynamic Transmission | Health/Medicine | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Infectious Diseases | Chronic Disease/Risk | Clinical Care | Economics/Finance | North America -
ArticlePublication 2008Health and Economic Implications of HPV Vaccination in the U.S.
This article reports on a study using models of HPV-16 and HPV-18 transmission and cervical …
This article reports on a study using models of HPV-16 and HPV-18 transmission and cervical carcinogenesis to compare the health and economic outcomes of vaccinating preadolescent girls in the US (at 12 years of age), and vaccinating older girls and women in catch-up programs (to 18, 21, or 26 years of age). The study also examined the health benefits of averting other HPV-16-related and HPV-18-related cancers, the prevention of HPV-6-related and HPV-11-related genital warts and…
Microsimulation | Calibration/Validation | Dynamic Transmission | Health/Medicine | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Infectious Diseases | Chronic Disease/Risk | Health Systems | Clinical Care | Economics/Finance | Science/Technology | North America -
ArticlePublication 2007Economic Evaluation of Hepatitis B Vaccination in Low-Income Countries: Cost-Effectiveness Affordability Curves
In the face of uncertainties about both the health and economic consequences of a vaccine …
In the face of uncertainties about both the health and economic consequences of a vaccine program, as well as the availability and magnitude of resources needed to fund the program, cost-effectiveness affordability curves can provide information to decision-makers about the probability that a program will be both cost-effective and affordable: these are distinct but equally relevant considerations in resource-poor settings. This paper describes the application of this method to assess a hepatitis B vaccination program in the…
Microsimulation | State-Transition | Health/Medicine | Costing Methods | Mathematical Models | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Infectious Diseases | Health Systems | Economics/Finance | Sub-Saharan Africa -
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…
Microsimulation | Decision Analysis | State-Transition | Health/Medicine | Mental Health -
ArticlePublication 2013Modeling the Effectiveness of Initial Management Strategies for Ductal Carcinoma in Situ
This paper compares alternative strategies to manage ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS). The authors used …
This paper compares alternative strategies to manage ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS). The authors used a disease simulation model to simulate the clinical events after six treatments (lumpectomy alone, lumpectomy with radiation, lumpectomy with radiation and tamoxifen, lumpectomy with tamoxifen, and mastectomy with and without breast reconstruction). Outcomes included disease-free, invasive disease-free, overall survival and breast preservation. Data were from the published literature. The results showed that for women aged 45 years at diagnosis, both mastectomy…
Decision Analysis | Health/Medicine | Health Outcomes | Clinical Care -
ArticlePublication 2010Alternative Strategies to Reduce Maternal Mortality in India: A Cost-Effectiveness Analysis
This article, published in PLoS Medicine, conducted a cost-effectiveness analysis of strategies to improve pregnancy …
This article, published in PLoS Medicine, conducted a cost-effectiveness analysis of strategies to improve pregnancy and childbirth safety in India. Country- and region-specific data were synthesized using a computer-based model that simulates the natural history of pregnancy and pregnancy-associated complications in individual women, and considers delivery location, attendant, and facility level. Model validation compared projected maternal indicators with empiric data. Strategies consisted of improving coverage of effective interventions that could be provided individually or packaged…
Microsimulation | Health/Medicine | Evidence Synthesis | Mathematical Models | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Maternal/Reproductive Health | Economics/Finance | Global | Asia & Pacific -
ArticlePublication 2008Cost-Effectiveness of Rapid Point-of-Care Prenatal Syphilis Screening in Sub-Saharan Africa
This paper investigates the cost-effectiveness of using rapid point-of-care tests for prenatal syphilis screening among …
This paper investigates the cost-effectiveness of using rapid point-of-care tests for prenatal syphilis screening among pregnant women in sub-Saharan Africa, a region with syphilis prevalence rates as high as 17%, and where traditional multi-test screening methods have been challenging to implement. Focusing on newly available rapid point-of-care screening tests, strategies differed by the initial test [rapid plasma reagin (RPR), immunochromographic strip (ICS)], need for confirmation with Treponema pallidum hemagglutination assay, and number of visits required.…
Health/Medicine | Costing Methods | Test Performance | Mathematical Models | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Technology Assessment | Infectious Diseases | Maternal/Reproductive Health | Clinical Care | Sub-Saharan Africa