Resources Repository
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ReviewPublication 2023Handbook of Vaccine Health Economics
The open-access book, "Handbook of Applied Health Economics in Vaccines," looks at the complexities of …
The open-access book, "Handbook of Applied Health Economics in Vaccines," looks at the complexities of vaccine discovery, financing, and distribution. It highlights the inadequacy of standard economic models for vaccines. The book explores alternative principles challenging market-based approaches and equips readers with tools for assessing costs and benefits through practical exercises. It serves as a comprehensive resource for decision-making in vaccine development and distribution and emphasizes the importance of considering broader perspectives beyond economic efficiency.…
Decision Analysis | Global | Costing Methods | Health Outcomes | Evidence Synthesis | Benefit-Cost Analysis | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Policy/Regulation | Health/Medicine | Graduate | Doctoral | Professional -
ArticlePublication 2021New Microsimulation Models to Inform Cervical Cancer Control
Health decision models consider the lifetime natural history of human papillomavirus (HPV) infection and pathogenesis …
Health decision models consider the lifetime natural history of human papillomavirus (HPV) infection and pathogenesis of cervical cancer, and estimate the long-term impact of preventive interventions. We propose a new health decision modeling framework that de-emphasizes previously used cytologic-colposcopic-histologic diagnoses, which are subjective and lack reproducibility, relying instead on HPV type and duration of infection as the major determinants of model transition probabilities. We posit that new model health states and corollary transitions are universal,…
Decision Analysis | Global | Mathematical Models | Microsimulation | Calibration/Validation | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Infectious Diseases -
ArticlePublication 2022Priority Setting in Early Childhood Development: An Analytical Framework
Early childhood development (ECD) sets the foundation for healthy and successful lives with important consequences …
Early childhood development (ECD) sets the foundation for healthy and successful lives with important consequences for education, labor market outcomes, and other domains of well-being. Even though many ECD interventions are implemented and evaluated globally, there is currently no standardized framework for comparing these interventions’ relative cost-effectiveness. The investigators developed an economic evaluation framework that focuses on the immediate impact of ECD interventions targeting motor, cognitive, language, and socioemotional skills. They applied the framework to compute…
Decision Analysis | Global | Priority Setting/Ethics | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Child/Nutrition -
ArticlePublication 2020Infectious Disease Pandemic Planning and Response: Incorporating Decision Analysis
During a pandemic, decisions must be made under rapidly changing, uncertain conditions. Despite advances in …
During a pandemic, decisions must be made under rapidly changing, uncertain conditions. Despite advances in analytical methods for gaining early situational awareness (i.e., of a disease’s transmissibility and severity) and for predicting the likely effectiveness of interventions, a major gap exists globally in terms of integrating this information in policy documents. The authors argue that mathematical and statistical models are important tools for pandemic planning and response. Once an outbreak of pandemic potential has been…
Decision Analysis | Global | Mathematical Models | Health Systems | Government/Law | Health/Medicine -
ArticlePublication 2020Interpreting COVID-19 Test Results: A Bayesian Approach
This article considers the following question with respect to interpreting the results of polymerase chain reaction …
This article considers the following question with respect to interpreting the results of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assays from nasal and pharyngeal swabs for COVID-19 to inform clinical decision making: "While a positive result in an acutely ill patient is straightforward, how should physicians interpret negative tests in patients with suspected COVID-19 infection?" Using an assumption of near-perfect specificity of PCR assays for COVID-19, the authors acknowledge the uncertainty of test sensitivity. They consider two clinical scenarios…
Probability/Bayes | Global | Test Performance | Infectious Diseases | Health/Medicine | Science/Technology -
Resource PackPublication, Teaching Resource 2019Resource Pack: BCA in Low- and Middle-Income Countries
This resource pack, curated by the Center for Health Decision Science, includes methods papers, case …
This resource pack, curated by the Center for Health Decision Science, includes methods papers, case studies, and reference case guidance for conducting benefit-cost analyses in low- and middle-income countries. These resources will aid advanced students and experienced practitioners in preparing these analyses. Investing in global health and development requires making difficult choices about what initiatives to fund and what level of resources to devote to each initiative. Although benefit-cost analysis is a well-established and widely-used…
Decision Analysis | Global | Preferences/Values | Priority Setting/Ethics | Benefit-Cost Analysis | Social Determinants | Policy/Regulation | Economics/Finance | Health/Medicine | Graduate | Doctoral | Professional | Critical Thinking/Analysis -
Resource PackPublication, Teaching Resource 2024Resource Pack: Introduction to Benefit-Cost Analysis
This resource pack, curated by the Center for Health Decision Science, introduces the theory and …
This resource pack, curated by the Center for Health Decision Science, introduces the theory and practice of benefit-cost analysis. It is targeted towards advanced students as well as practitioners and those interested in teaching benefit-cost analysis. Benefit-cost analysis (also referred to as cost-benefit analysis) is a well-established and widely-used form of economic evaluation. It is designed to inform policy and other decisions by providing evidence on the consequences of alternative interventions. In benefit-cost analysis, all…
Decision Analysis | Global | Preferences/Values | Priority Setting/Ethics | Benefit-Cost Analysis | Social Determinants | Policy/Regulation | Climate/Environment | Economics/Finance | Government/Law | Health/Medicine | College | Graduate | Doctoral | Professional | Critical Thinking/Analysis -
Lesson/ModuleVideo, Teaching Resource 2018Medical Decision Making and Decision Analysis
This video is intended to provide an introduction to decision analysis in the context of …
This video is intended to provide an introduction to decision analysis in the context of medicine and public health and includes a discussion of the goals and elements of a decision analysis, introduces the concept of decision trees, and highlights how Markov models can be used to consider more complex disease decisions. This video is part of the Conducting Cost-Effectiveness Analysis with VA Data (HCEA) free course offered by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs…
Decision Analysis | North America | Mathematical Models | State-Transition | Health/Medicine | College | Graduate | Doctoral | Critical Thinking/Analysis | Decision Making/Leadership | Quantitative Literacy -
Lesson/ModuleVideo, Teaching Resource 2018Estimating Transition Probabilities for a Model
This video is intended to provide a discussion on various methods for deriving probabilities that are …
This video is intended to provide a discussion on various methods for deriving probabilities that are needed for decision models. Presented are the concepts of literature based Odds Ratios and Relative Risks, which need to be transformed into probabilities, how to deal with probability estimates from time frames not relevant to the model in question, and how to derive probabilities from published summary statistics. This lecture is aimed at the researcher who is interested in operationalizing…
Probability/Bayes | North America | Evidence Synthesis | Mathematical Models | Health/Medicine | College | Graduate | Doctoral | Critical Thinking/Analysis | Quantitative Literacy