Resources Repository
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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 | Energy/Engineering | Economics/Finance | Decision Theory | Probability/Bayes | Preferences/Values | Operations Research | Business/Industry | Health/Medicine -
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 | Economics/Finance | Decision Theory | Costing Methods | Health Outcomes | State-Transition | Infectious Diseases | Policy/Regulation | Government/Law | Health/Medicine | Middle East & North Africa -
ArticlePublication 2021Misinformation and Public Opinion of Science and Health
This article summarizes the literature on misinformation, beginning with an overview of the most common …
This article summarizes the literature on misinformation, beginning with an overview of the most common definitions of misinformation (and related terms) in the communication literature and then a review of academic studies in the areas of science and health. The author acknowledges four overarching questions that have emerged prominently in recent years: (1) What does “misinformation” (and the terms that are oftentimes treated synonymously) mean? (2) How big of a problem is it in areas…
Decision Psychology | Energy/Engineering | Preferences/Values | Social Determinants | Climate/Environment | Culture/Society | Education/Labor | Science/Technology | Global | North America -
ArticlePublication 2019Misinformation Has Created a New World Disorder
This article, in brief, discusses (1) that many types of information disorder exist online, from …
This article, in brief, discusses (1) that many types of information disorder exist online, from fabricated videos to impersonated accounts to memes designed to manipulate genuine content, (2) automation and microtargeting tactics have made it easier for agents of disinformation to weaponize regular users of the social web to spread harmful messages, and (3) much research is needed to understand the effects of disinformation and build safeguards against it. This description was adapted from the…
Decision Psychology | Energy/Engineering | Preferences/Values | Climate/Environment | Culture/Society | Government/Law | Health/Medicine | Science/Technology | Global | North America -
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…
Decision Psychology | Economics/Finance | Priority Setting/Ethics | Mathematical Models | Infectious Diseases | Health Systems | Global Governance | Government/Law | Health/Medicine | Global -
ArticlePublication 2015Population Health Model (POHEM): An Overview
This paper provides an overview of the rationale, methodology and applications of the Population Health …
This paper provides an overview of the rationale, methodology and applications of the Population Health Model (POHEM). POHEM is a health microsimulation model, developed at Statistics Canada in the early 1990s. The authors describe that POHEM draws together rich multivariate data from a wide range of sources to simulate the lifecycle of the Canadian population, specifically focusing on aspects of health. The model dynamically simulates individuals’ disease states, risk factors, and health determinants, in order…
Calibration/Validation | Economics/Finance | Costing Methods | Evidence Synthesis | Mathematical Models | Microsimulation | Chronic Disease/Risk | Health Systems | Policy/Regulation | Clinical Care | Health/Medicine | North America -
ArticlePublication 2014Cost of a Primary Care-Based Childhood Obesity Prevention Intervention
This study evaluated the cost of a primary care-based obesity prevention intervention (High Five for …
This study evaluated the cost of a primary care-based obesity prevention intervention (High Five for Kids) for children ages 2-6 years, compared to usual care. U.S. pediatric guidelines recommend that childhood obesity counseling be done in primary care settings. The clinical trial aimed to modify children’s nutrition and TV viewing habits through a motivational interviewing intervention. The authors assessed the visit-related costs for children enrolled in the trial, and found that the mean costs for…
Decision Analysis | Economics/Finance | Costing Methods | Child/Nutrition | Chronic Disease/Risk | Clinical Care | Health/Medicine | North America -
ArticlePublication 2011Health and Economic Impact of HPV 16/18 Vaccination and Cervical Cancer Screening in Eastern Africa
In this article the authors use epidemiologic data from Kenya, Mozambique, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zimbabwe …
In this article the authors use epidemiologic data from Kenya, Mozambique, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zimbabwe to develop models of HPV-related infection and disease. For each country, they assessed HPV vaccination of girls before age 12 followed by screening with HPV DNA testing once, twice, or three times per lifetime (at ages 35, 40, 45). For women over age 30, they assessed only screening (with HPV DNA testing up to three times per lifetime or VIA…
Calibration/Validation | Economics/Finance | Microsimulation | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Infectious Diseases | Chronic Disease/Risk | Clinical Care | Health/Medicine | Science/Technology | Sub-Saharan Africa -
ArticlePublication 2010Model Uncertainty in Economic Evaluation of Health Interventions: Rotavirus Vaccination in Vietnam
Motivated by observed discrepancies between 2 published studies on the cost-effectiveness of rotavirus vaccination in …
Motivated by observed discrepancies between 2 published studies on the cost-effectiveness of rotavirus vaccination in Vietnam, the authors' objectives were to illustrate a specific, systematic approach to assessing model (structure and process) uncertainty and to quantify explicitly the contributions of different sources of variation in the outputs of different studies that share the same research question. On the basis of a series of working definitions of key model elements, the authors developed 5 alternative computer…
Calibration/Validation | Economics/Finance | Mathematical Models | State-Transition | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Infectious Diseases | Health/Medicine | Asia & Pacific