Resources Repository
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ArticlePublication 2022Hospital Closures amid COVID-19
The recent trend of hospital closures in the US has accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic, …
The recent trend of hospital closures in the US has accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic, as hospitals have experienced financial hardship from reduced patient volume and elective surgery cases, as well as the thin financial margins for treating patients with COVID-19. This trend of hospital closures is concerning for patients, healthcare providers, and policymakers. This current opinion piece describes the challenges caused by hospital closures and discusses what policymakers should know based on the existing…
North America | Operations Research | Health Systems | Health/Medicine -
EditorialPublication 2021Scientific and Regulatory Challenges in Designing mHealth Interventions
Scientists looking for innovative ways to deliver health care have long searched for mechanisms that …
Scientists looking for innovative ways to deliver health care have long searched for mechanisms that can enable the right intervention to be delivered at the right time. Traditional delivery mechanisms have been limited both to the availability of a provider (e.g., a physician) and the location of care (e.g., a hospital or outpatient clinic). In recent years, however, numerous technological advancements—including wearable devices, mobile technologies, and the widespread development and use of user-friendly smartphone applications—have…
North America | Technology Assessment | Health/Medicine | Science/Technology -
ArticlePublication 2020Data-Driven Management of Post-Transplant Medications
Organ-transplanted patients typically receive high amounts of immunosuppressive drugs as a mechanism to reduce their …
Organ-transplanted patients typically receive high amounts of immunosuppressive drugs as a mechanism to reduce their risk of organ rejection. However, because of the diabetogenic effect of these drugs, this practice exposes them to a greater risk of new-onset diabetes after transplantation (NODAT), and hence, becoming insulin dependent. This study develops effective medication management strategies to address the common conundrum of balancing the risk of organ rejection versus that of NODAT. The article presents a robust…
North America | Mathematical Models | Operations Research | Chronic Disease/Risk | Health/Medicine -
ArticlePublication 2020Post-Heart Transplantation Diabetes Mellitus
This retrospective study analyzed glycemic trends, incidence of post-transplant diabetes mellitus (PTDM), and associated risk …
This retrospective study analyzed glycemic trends, incidence of post-transplant diabetes mellitus (PTDM), and associated risk factors in a cohort of patients who underwent first-time heart transplantation. Univariate analyses compared patients with and without pretransplant diabetes mellitus. Multivariate regression analyses determined the association between PTDM and different risk factors. Finally, trends in glucometrics and other outcomes are described across follow-up time points.
North America | Chronic Disease/Risk | Health/Medicine -
ArticlePublication 2020Post-Transplantation Diabetes Incidence and Risk Factors
Most prior studies characterizing post-transplantation diabetes mellitus have been limited to single-cohort, single-organ studies. This …
Most prior studies characterizing post-transplantation diabetes mellitus have been limited to single-cohort, single-organ studies. This retrospective study determined post-transplantation diabetes mellitus across organs by comparing incidence and risk factors among 346 liver and 407 kidney transplant recipients from a single center. The authors used univariate and multivariate regression-based analyses to determine the association of various risk factors and post-transplantation diabetes mellitus in the two cohorts, as well as differences in glucometrics and insulin use across…
North America | Chronic Disease/Risk | Health/Medicine -
EditorialPublication 2019Quality Transparency in Health Care
The immediate promise of using public reporting to increase quality transparency is that it will …
The immediate promise of using public reporting to increase quality transparency is that it will enable consumers to choose the providers best suited to their needs and thereby lead to improved patient outcomes and welfare. Unfortunately, however, early empirical findings failed to detect such anticipated benefits from public reporting. For example, studies have indicated that the launch of the Hospital Compare website and other efforts aimed at increasing quality transparency have not resulted in improved…
North America | Policy/Regulation | Health/Medicine -
ArticlePublication 2021Employee Health Plans Powered by Analytics
This article describes a business model for the employee health plans of large firms to …
This article describes a business model for the employee health plans of large firms to bypass insurers and instead use direct contracts with hospitals which have been designated as centers of excellence. The authors propose methods of machine learning and data analytics to identify efficient and effective delivery systems, with the ultimate goal of improving health care quality.
North America | Operations Research | Health Systems -
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…
Middle East & North Africa | Decision Theory | Costing Methods | Health Outcomes | State-Transition | Decision Analysis | Infectious Diseases | Policy/Regulation | Economics/Finance | Government/Law | Health/Medicine -
ArticlePublication 2022COVID-19 Response: The Need for Economic Evaluation
COVID-19-related policies are fraught with trade-offs. Many of these trade-offs involve dimensions that can be …
COVID-19-related policies are fraught with trade-offs. Many of these trade-offs involve dimensions that can be quantitatively weighed using economic evaluation, such as those between health and cost outcomes. Other types of dimensions, such as those involving equity or autonomy, can be harder to quantify but should be considered in a comprehensive health policy decision-making context nonetheless. The authors of this New England Journal of Medicine Perspectives article outline how methods of economic evaluation and decision…
North America | Priority Setting/Ethics | Benefit-Cost Analysis | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Infectious Diseases | Policy/Regulation | Economics/Finance | Health/Medicine | Global