Resources Repository
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ArticleWeb Portal 2017PLOS Collection: Economic Efficiency of HIV Services
In order to maximize the value for money for HIV services and increase efficiency without …
In order to maximize the value for money for HIV services and increase efficiency without sacrificing quality, robust and up-to-date data on costs, efficiency and its determinants are needed. This PLOS collection, Economic Efficiency of HIV Services, presents recent, high-quality evidence from low- and middle-income countries on costs and technical efficiency of HIV services and their determinants. These data contribute to the current discussion on optimizing resources for HIV services and can provide programmatic guidance for…
Sub-Saharan Africa | Priority Setting/Ethics | Costing Methods | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Operations Research | Infectious Diseases | Economics/Finance | Health/Medicine | Middle East & North Africa | Latin America & Caribbean | Asia & Pacific -
ArticlePublication 2017Getting it Right When Budgets are Tight: Prioritizing Responses to HIV Epidemics
Prioritizing investments across health interventions is complicated by the nonlinear relationship between intervention coverage and …
Prioritizing investments across health interventions is complicated by the nonlinear relationship between intervention coverage and epidemiological outcomes. It can be difficult for countries to know which interventions to prioritize for greatest epidemiological impact, particularly when budgets are uncertain.The authors examined four case studies of HIV epidemics in diverse settings, each with different characteristics. These case studies were based on public data available for Belarus, Peru, Togo, and Myanmar. The Optima HIV model and software package…
Sub-Saharan Africa | Priority Setting/Ethics | Costing Methods | Mathematical Models | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Infectious Diseases | Health Systems | Economics/Finance | Health/Medicine | Middle East & North Africa | Latin America & Caribbean | Asia & Pacific -
ArticlePublication 2017Using Data-Driven Agent-Based Models to Forecast Emerging Infectious Diseases
This paper describes an agent-based model framework developed to forecast the 2014-15 Ebola epidemic, which …
This paper describes an agent-based model framework developed to forecast the 2014-15 Ebola epidemic, which was subsequently used in the Ebola forecasting challenge. Producing timely and reliable forecasts for an epidemic of an emerging infectious disease is a challenge. Epidemiologists and policy makers have to deal with poor data quality, limited understanding of the disease dynamics, a rapidly changing social environment and the uncertainty around the effects of various interventions in place. In this setting,…
Calibration/Validation | Sub-Saharan Africa | Microsimulation | Dynamic Simulation | Infectious Diseases | Health/Medicine -
ArticlePublication 2017Designing an Optimal HIV Programme for South Africa
This 2017 study compares the traditional and a novel method of comparing cost-effectiveness interventions in …
This 2017 study compares the traditional and a novel method of comparing cost-effectiveness interventions in the context of HIV in South Africa, using a modeling approach. The authors argue that the assumptions of a) independence of interventions, and b) linear scale-up effects do not hold because South Africa has a large domestically funded HIV program with highly saturated coverage levels. The authors therefore aim to better allocate resources for HIV interventions in South Africa when…
Sub-Saharan Africa | Priority Setting/Ethics | Mathematical Models | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Operations Research | Infectious Diseases | Health Systems | Economics/Finance | Health/Medicine -
ArticlePublication 2016Country-Level Cost-Effectiveness Thresholds
This article estimates the cost-effectiveness thresholds (CETs) for health interventions in several low and middle-income …
This article estimates the cost-effectiveness thresholds (CETs) for health interventions in several low and middle-income countries (LMICs), based on opportunity costs. When there are constraints on a health care system’s budget or ability to increase expenditures, additional costs imposed by interventions have an “opportunity cost” in terms of the health foregone because other interventions cannot be provided. The authors argue that cost-effectiveness thresholds should reflect health opportunity cost and aim to calculate these in four…
Sub-Saharan Africa | Priority Setting/Ethics | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Health Systems | Economics/Finance | Health/Medicine | Middle East & North Africa | Latin America & Caribbean | Europe | Asia & Pacific -
ArticlePublication 2016Maternal-Related Deaths and Impoverishment among Adolescent Girls in India and Niger
This article, published in BMJ Open, examined the distribution of maternal deaths and impoverishment among …
This article, published in BMJ Open, examined the distribution of maternal deaths and impoverishment among adolescent girls across socioeconomic groups in Niger and India, which have the largest fertility rate, and number of maternal deaths, respectively. Results showed that in Niger and India, the poorer adolescents had a larger number of maternal deaths compared to the richer. Impoverishment occurred mostly among the richer adolescents in Niger and among the poorer adolescents in India. Increasing educational…
Sub-Saharan Africa | Priority Setting/Ethics | Costing Methods | Health Outcomes | Mathematical Models | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Maternal/Reproductive Health | Social Determinants | Health Systems | Economics/Finance | Education/Labor | Health/Medicine | Asia & Pacific -
ArticlePublication 2016Departures from Cost-Effectiveness Recommendations: Health System Constraints
Cost-effectiveness analysis assumes a single constraint, in the form of the budget constraint, whereas in reality …
Cost-effectiveness analysis assumes a single constraint, in the form of the budget constraint, whereas in reality decision makers may be faced with numerous other constraints. The objective of this article is to develop a typology of constraints that may act as barriers to implementation of cost-effectiveness recommendations. Six categories of constraints are considered: the design of the health system; costs of implementing change; system interactions between interventions; uncertainty in estimates of costs and benefits; weak governance;…
Sub-Saharan Africa | Priority Setting/Ethics | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Health Systems | Policy/Regulation | Economics/Finance | Education/Labor | Government/Law | Health/Medicine | Middle East & North Africa | Latin America & Caribbean | Asia & Pacific -
ArticlePublication 2016Extended CEA: Diarrhea and Pneumonia in Ethiopia
This chapter examines universal public finance of the prevention and treatment of pneumonia and diarrhea …
This chapter examines universal public finance of the prevention and treatment of pneumonia and diarrhea in Ethiopia, with a focus on children under age five years. This extended cost-effectiveness analysis examines benefits by income quintile so that policy makers can better understand how each package affects different segments of the population and permits the incorporation of financial risk protection in the economic evaluation of health policies - both critical elements of universal health coverage.
Sub-Saharan Africa | Priority Setting/Ethics | Health Outcomes | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Infectious Diseases | Child/Nutrition | Social Determinants | Health Systems | Economics/Finance | Health/Medicine -
ArticlePublication 2015Expansion of Surgical Access in Rural Ethiopia: Extended Cost-Effectiveness Analysis
This article, published in Health Policy and Planning, utilizes an extended cost effectiveness analysis (ECEA) …
This article, published in Health Policy and Planning, utilizes an extended cost effectiveness analysis (ECEA) to examine how policies to expand access to surgery in rural Ethiopia would impact health, impoverishment, and equity. The study finds that health benefits, financial risk protection, and equity appear to be in tension in the expansion of access to surgical care. Health benefits from each of the examined policies accrue primarily among the poor, but without travel vouchers, many…
Sub-Saharan Africa | Priority Setting/Ethics | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Health Systems | Economics/Finance | Health/Medicine