Resources Repository
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ArticlePublication 2016Accounting for Technical, Ethical, and Political Factors in Priority Setting
This article investigates two cases of priority setting to explore how, in addition to technical …
This article investigates two cases of priority setting to explore how, in addition to technical considerations, ethical and political factors shape the allocation of health resources. First, they discuss how Thai authorities adjudicated a coverage decision for HLA-B*1502 screening, which meets the national cost-effectiveness threshold for only some of the conditions it can detect. Second, they consider England’s Cancer Drugs Fund to investigate the interplay of technical decision making and political reality. The findings suggest four concluding…
Priority Setting/Ethics | Government/Law | Climate/Environment | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Chronic Disease/Risk | Health Systems | Policy/Regulation | Health/Medicine | Science/Technology | Global | Europe -
ArticlePublication 2015Extended Cost-Effectiveness Analysis of Treatment and Prevention of Diarrhoea in Ethiopia
This article, published in BMJ Open, aims to illustrate the size and distribution of benefits …
This article, published in BMJ Open, aims to illustrate the size and distribution of benefits due to the treatment and prevention of diarrhoea (i.e., rotavirus vaccination) in Ethiopia. The authors use an economic model to examine the impacts of universal public finance (UPF) of diarrhoeal treatment alone, as opposed to diarrhoeal treatment along with rotavirus vaccination using extended cost-effectiveness analysis (ECEA). The study finds that diarrhoeal treatment paired with rotavirus vaccination is more cost effective…
Priority Setting/Ethics | Costing Methods | Climate/Environment | Health Outcomes | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Infectious Diseases | Child/Nutrition | Social Determinants | Environmental Health | Health Systems | Economics/Finance | Health/Medicine | Sub-Saharan Africa -
GuidelinesPublication 2014Methods for Economic Evaluation Project
This report details the work of the Methods for Economic Evaluation Project (MEEP), which aims …
This report details the work of the Methods for Economic Evaluation Project (MEEP), which aims to promote a consistency in the methods used for economic evaluations. The report is targeted especially at low and middle-income countries (LMICs). The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is a major funder of health economic evaluations in LMICs, but there is substantial variation in the methods used and the quality of the analyses produced. The report drew on expertise from…
Priority Setting/Ethics | Costing Methods | Climate/Environment | Benefit-Cost Analysis | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Education/Labor | Health/Medicine | Global -
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 | Government/Law | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Culture/Society | Health/Medicine | Science/Technology -
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 | Government/Law | Climate/Environment | Evidence Synthesis | Mathematical Models | Technology Assessment | Environmental Health | Health Systems | Policy/Regulation | Business/Industry | Economics/Finance | Energy/Engineering | Health/Medicine | North America -
ArticlePublication 2000Discipline of Cost-Benefit Analysis
Cost-benefit analysis is a general discipline, based on the use of some foundational principles, which …
Cost-benefit analysis is a general discipline, based on the use of some foundational principles, which are not altogether controversial, but have nevertheless considered plausibility. Divisiveness increases as various additional requirements are imposed. There is a trade-off here between easier usability (through locked-up formulae) and more general acceptability (through allowing parametric variations). The paper, by Amartya Sen, examines and scrutinizes the merits and demerits of these additional requirements. The particular variant of cost-benefit approach that is…
Priority Setting/Ethics | Preferences/Values | Government/Law | Benefit-Cost Analysis | Culture/Society | Economics/Finance -
ReviewPublication 1982Decision Analysis: An Overview
This article, written for the non-decision analyst, describes what decision analysis is, what it can …
This article, written for the non-decision analyst, describes what decision analysis is, what it can and cannot do, why one should care to do this, and how one does it. Keeney describes decision analysis as "a formalization of common sense for decision problems which are too complex for informal use of common sense." He provides a more technical definition also, describing decision analysis as "a philosophy, articulated by a set of logical axioms, and a methodology…
Preferences/Values | Decision Theory | Government/Law | Decision Analysis | Policy/Regulation | Business/Industry | Economics/Finance | Energy/Engineering | Health/Medicine | Military/Defense | Science/Technology -
ReportPublication 2021Valuing COVID-19 Mortality and Morbidity Risks
In this report, the researchers develop an approach for valuing COVID-19 mortality and morbidity risk …
In this report, the researchers develop an approach for valuing COVID-19 mortality and morbidity risk reductions that builds on the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Guidelines for Regulatory Impact Analysis. They review the differences between COVID-19 mortality risks and the types of risks that are more commonly studied, and find that the impacts of these differences on the value of mortality risk reductions (the value per statistical life, VSL) are uncertain. They…
Preferences/Values | Government/Law | Benefit-Cost Analysis | Infectious Diseases | Policy/Regulation | North America -
ArticlePublication 2020Valuing COVID-19 Mortality Risk
In this article, the author evaluates whether conventional estimates of the value per statistical life …
In this article, the author evaluates whether conventional estimates of the value per statistical life (VSL) in the United States (about $10 million) are appropriate for evaluating policies that affect risk of COVID-19. This estimate may be too large, because: (1) VSL estimates marginal values but COVID-19 risks can be non-marginal; (2) VSL is estimated for the average resident, but COVID-19 mortality is concentrated among the elderly; and (3) the pandemic has caused substantial losses…
Preferences/Values | Government/Law | Benefit-Cost Analysis | Infectious Diseases | Global