Resources Repository
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ReviewPublication 2012Applying Decision Science to Managing National Forests
This publication is an example of the application of decision science to the management of …
This publication is an example of the application of decision science to the management of federal public forests, in particular to meet sustainability goals and multiple use regulations. Through three case studies, the authors describe four stages of a decision analytic approach: problem structuring (framing the problem and defining objectives and evaluation criteria), problem analysis (defining alternatives, evaluating likely consequences, identifying key uncertainties, and analyzing tradeoffs), decision point (identifying the preferred alternative), and implementation and monitoring…
Policy/Regulation | Value of Information | Decision Analysis | Risk Analysis | Social Determinants | Environmental Health | Climate/Environment | Government/Law -
ArticlePublication 2012Value of Family Planning for Improving Maternal Health in Rural Afghanistan
This article, published in the Afghanistan Journal of Public Health, uses a model designed to …
This article, published in the Afghanistan Journal of Public Health, uses a model designed to simulate the natural history of pregnancy and associated maternal mortality and morbidity contextualized to Afghanistan to assess the cost-effectiveness of family planning in the rural Maywand district of Kandahar. Using total fertility rate, pregnancy-related complications, maternal mortality ratio, lifetime risk of maternal death, and proportionate mortality ratio as outcomes, the model finds that increasing family planning from 8% to 30-50% could…
Policy/Regulation | Health Outcomes | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Maternal/Reproductive Health | Health/Medicine | Asia & Pacific -
ArticlePublication 2012Health and Economic Outcomes of Interventions to Reduce Pregnancy-Related Mortality in Nigeria
This paper examines the cost-effectiveness and impact of individual and integrated packages of interventions aimed …
This paper examines the cost-effectiveness and impact of individual and integrated packages of interventions aimed to reduce maternal mortality in Nigeria, a country with extremely high maternal mortality rates. Using a previously validated model adapted to the Nigerian context, the study finds that an increase of access to family planning is the most effective individual strategy, which not only reduces pregnancy-related mortality but also proves to be economically efficient. However, relying solely on family planning…
Policy/Regulation | Health Outcomes | State-Transition | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Maternal/Reproductive Health | Health Systems | Economics/Finance | Health/Medicine | Sub-Saharan Africa -
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…
Policy/Regulation | Priority Setting/Ethics | Evidence Synthesis | Mathematical Models | Technology Assessment | Environmental Health | Health Systems | Business/Industry | Climate/Environment | Economics/Finance | Energy/Engineering | Government/Law | Health/Medicine | North America -
ReviewPublication 1978Basic Principles of ROC Analysis
The limitations of diagnostic "accuracy" as a measure of decision performance require introduction of the …
The limitations of diagnostic "accuracy" as a measure of decision performance require introduction of the concepts of the "sensitivity" and "specificity" yet even these do not provide a unique description of diagnostic performance because they depend on the arbitrary selection of a decision threshold. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve is shown to be a simple yet complete empirical description of this decision threshold effect, indicating all possible combinations of the relative frequencies of the…
Clinical Care | Test Performance | Health/Medicine