Resources Repository
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ArticlePublication 2007Mortality-Risk Valuation and Age
This article addresses whether a single value of statistical life (VSL) should be applied to …
This article addresses whether a single value of statistical life (VSL) should be applied to all age groups or whether lower values should be used for the elderly, recognizing that their life expectancies are shorter than those of younger people. Surveys of different age groups' willingness to pay (WTP) for mortality-risk reductions can potentially help resolve this issue. The 36 studies reviewed suggest that the literature is split on whether older people have a lower WTP…
Benefit-Cost Analysis | Preferences/Values | Policy/Regulation | Climate/Environment | College | Graduate | Critical Thinking/Analysis -
ReviewPublication 2006Ethical Issues in Resource Allocation, Research, and New Product Development
Ethical dilemmas arising in setting priorities among interventions and among individuals in need of care …
Ethical dilemmas arising in setting priorities among interventions and among individuals in need of care are most acute when needs are great and resources few. This chapter from the Disease Control Priorities in Developing Countries 2nd edition addresses some of these concerns, identifying some of the principal ethical issues that arise in the development and allocation of effective interventions for developing countries and discussing some alternative resolutions. Resource allocation in health and elsewhere should satisfy two main…
Priority Setting/Ethics | Preferences/Values | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Culture/Society | Government/Law | Health/Medicine | Science/Technology -
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…
Operations Research | Decision Analysis | Business/Industry | Health/Medicine -
BookPublication 2003WHO Guide to Cost-Effectiveness Analysis
This 2003 guide provides a method of assessing the cost-effectiveness of health interventions for an …
This 2003 guide provides a method of assessing the cost-effectiveness of health interventions for an international audience. The authors aim to inform the policy maker and to maximize the generalizability of results across settings. Part I begins with a description of cost-effectiveness analysis. It then considers issues relating to study design, estimating costs, assessing health effects, discounting, uncertainty and sensitivity analysis, and reporting results. Part II provides examples to illustrate the principles in Part I. Detailed discussions…
Priority Setting/Ethics | Costing Methods | Health Outcomes | Evidence Synthesis | Mathematical Models | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Health Systems | Health/Medicine | Global -
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…
Priority Setting/Ethics | Evidence Synthesis | Mathematical Models | Technology Assessment | Environmental Health | Health Systems | Policy/Regulation | Business/Industry | Climate/Environment | Economics/Finance | Energy/Engineering | Government/Law | Health/Medicine | North America -
ArticlePublication 2000Valuing Mortality Risk: Theory and Practice
This article discusses the theoretical foundation and empirical methods for estimating the value of a …
This article discusses the theoretical foundation and empirical methods for estimating the value of a statistical life (VSL). VSL is defined by individuals' preferences for small changes in risk and income, and often used by environmental and other economists to measure the monetary value of reduced mortality risk. The article reviews the dependence of VSL on age, income, baseline mortality risk, and latency.
Benefit-Cost Analysis | Preferences/Values | Policy/Regulation | College | Graduate | Critical Thinking/Analysis -
BookPublication 1996Cost-Effectiveness in Health and Medicine, 1st Edition
In 1993, the US Public Health Service convened a panel of 13 nongovernment scientists and …
In 1993, the US Public Health Service convened a panel of 13 nongovernment scientists and scholars with expertise in economics, clinical medicine, ethics, and statistics to review the state of cost-effectiveness analysis and to develop recommendations for its conduct and use in health and medicine. Publishing their results in 1996, they proposed the most explicit set of guidelines (together with their rationale) ever defined on the conduct of CEAs. The panel recommended analysts include a "reference-case"…
Priority Setting/Ethics | Preferences/Values | Costing Methods | Health Outcomes | Evidence Synthesis | Value of Information | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Health Systems | Policy/Regulation | Economics/Finance | Health/Medicine | North America -
Tutorial/PrimerPublication, Teaching Resource 1980Threshold Approach to Clinical Decision Making
This classic paper provides a "tutorial" for students learning about diagnostic testing, probability revision, and …
This classic paper provides a "tutorial" for students learning about diagnostic testing, probability revision, and how to calculate thresholds for testing, treatment, and no treatment. The authors describe how a physician's estimate of the probability that a patient has a particular disease is a principal factor in the determination of whether to withhold treatment, obtain more data by testing, or treat without subjecting the patient to the risks of further diagnostic tests. Using the concepts of decision analysis,…
Probability/Bayes | Test Performance | Value of Information | Decision Analysis | Health/Medicine -
BookPublication 1980Clinical Decision Analysis
This text was conceived and developed in the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health …
This text was conceived and developed in the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health at the Center for the Analysis of Health Practices. The book had its origins in a set of classroom materials developed during the academic year 1974-75 for an elective course in medical decision making at the Harvard Medical School. In this book students are shown how to structure clinical decision problems, how to systematically formulate the intertwining roles of diagnosis and treatment, how to…
Probability/Bayes | Preferences/Values | Costing Methods | Health Outcomes | Test Performance | Value of Information | State-Transition | Decision Analysis | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Infectious Diseases | Child/Nutrition | Chronic Disease/Risk | Economics/Finance | Health/Medicine | Global | North America | Europe | Graduate | Doctoral | Critical Thinking/Analysis | Decision Making/Leadership | Quantitative Literacy