Resources Repository
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ReportPublication 2015Improving Diagnosis in Health Care
Getting the right diagnosis is a key aspect of health care - it provides an …
Getting the right diagnosis is a key aspect of health care - it provides an explanation of a patient's health problem and informs subsequent health care decisions. The diagnostic process is a complex, collaborative activity that involves clinical reasoning and information gathering to determine a patient's health problem. This report, Improving Diagnosis in Health Care, explains that diagnostic errors-inaccurate or delayed diagnoses-persist throughout all settings of care and continue to harm an unacceptable number of patients.…
Test Performance | Health Outcomes | Value of Information | Health/Medicine | Probability/Bayes | Health Systems | North America -
ReportPublication 2015Modeling to Improve Policy Decisions in the Americas: Noncommunicable Diseases
In the Region of the Americas, noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) are a clear threat not only …
In the Region of the Americas, noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) are a clear threat not only to human health, but also to a country’s economic development and growth. The evidence on both of these counts is compelling. In 2012, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancers, chronic respiratory conditions including asthma, and other NCDs were the cause of 4.5 million deaths in the Americas. Of that total number, 1.5 million of them were premature, occurring among people aged 30-69…
Microsimulation | State-Transition | Costing Methods | Health/Medicine | Priority Setting/Ethics | Mathematical Models | Decision Analysis | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Chronic Disease/Risk | Mental Health | Latin America & Caribbean -
ReportPublication 2014Redirecting Innovation in U.S. Health Care
This report from RAND Health explores methods of reducing health care spending and developing medical …
This report from RAND Health explores methods of reducing health care spending and developing medical products that provide cost value with health benefits. It summarizes literature and explores case studies to provide policy recommendations to meet these goals. It identifies a wide range of factors that affect the costs, risks, and rewards of medical product invention. Some of these features include treatment creep, the medical arms race, costs and risks of FDA approval, limited reward…
Evidence Synthesis | Costing Methods | Health Outcomes | Health/Medicine | Health Systems | Policy/Regulation | Economics/Finance | Government/Law | Science/Technology | North America -
BookPublication 2013Making Hard Decisions with Decision Tools, 3rd Edition
Making Hard Decisions with Decision Tools® is a new edition and teaches the fundamental ideas …
Making Hard Decisions with Decision Tools® is a new edition and teaches the fundamental ideas of decision analysis, without an overly technical explanation of the mathematics used in decision analysis. This new version has been purposefully written to be more relevant to students in business and engineering compared to previous versions. This new version also incorporates and implements the powerful DecisionTools® software by Palisade Corporation. At the end of each chapter, topics are illustrated with step-by-step instructions…
Microsimulation | Test Performance | Value of Information | Health/Medicine | Probability/Bayes | Preferences/Values | Decision Analysis | Policy/Regulation | Business/Industry | Energy/Engineering | Military/Defense | Science/Technology | Global | North America | Europe -
GuidelinesPublication 2012Model Transparency and Validation: A Report of the ISPOR-SMDM Modeling Task Force-7
This paper discusses how to improve trust in the use of health care models through …
This paper discusses how to improve trust in the use of health care models through validation and transparency. Validation involves face validity (wherein experts evaluate model structure, data sources, assumptions, and results), verification or internal validity (check accuracy of coding), cross validity (comparison of results with other models analyzing same problem), external validity (comparing model results to real-world results), and predictive validity (comparing model results with prospectively observed events). Recommendations are provided for nontechnical description…
Calibration/Validation | Costing Methods | Health Outcomes | Health/Medicine | Mathematical Models -
GuidelinesPublication 2012Modeling Using Discrete Event Simulation: A Report of the ISPOR-SMDM Modeling Task Force-4
This paper reports on consensus-based guidelines on the application of DES in a health care …
This paper reports on consensus-based guidelines on the application of DES in a health care setting, covering the range of issues to which DES can be applied. Discrete event simulation (DES) is a form of computer-based modeling that provides an intuitive and flexible approach to representing complex systems. The article works through the different stages of the modeling process: structural development, parameter estimation, model implementation, model analysis, and representation and reporting. Recommendations are made for…
Evidence Synthesis | Dynamic Simulation | Calibration/Validation | Health/Medicine | Mathematical Models -
ReviewPublication 2011Simulation Models of Obesity: A Review of the Literature
Simulation models combine information from a variety of sources to provide a useful tool for …
Simulation models combine information from a variety of sources to provide a useful tool for examining how the effects of obesity unfold over time and impact population health. They can aid in the understanding of the complex interaction of the drivers of diet and activity and their relation to health outcomes. This paper provided an overview of different types of simulation models used to evaluate the potential impact of policies to address the obesity epidemic.…
Microsimulation | Calibration/Validation | State-Transition | Health/Medicine | Mathematical Models | Decision Analysis | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Child/Nutrition | Chronic Disease/Risk | Economics/Finance | Food/Agriculture -
ReviewPublication 2011Dynamic Microsimulation Models for Health Outcomes: A Review
This review article presents an overview of microsimulation modeling, focusing on the development and application …
This review article presents an overview of microsimulation modeling, focusing on the development and application of these models for health policy questions. Microsimulation models for health outcomes simulate individual event histories associated with key components of a disease process; these simulated life histories can be aggregated to estimate population-level effects of treatment on disease outcomes and the comparative effectiveness of treatments. The authors argue that methodological improvements in modeling approaches have been slowed by the…
Microsimulation | Calibration/Validation | Health Outcomes | Health/Medicine -
ArticlePublication 2009Cost Effectiveness Analysis of Including Boys in a HPV Vaccination Program in the U.S.
This article reports on a societal-perspective cost effectiveness analysis of including preadolescent boys in a …
This article reports on a societal-perspective cost effectiveness analysis of including preadolescent boys in a routine human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination program for preadolescent girls. The analysis included girls and boys aged 12 years; interventions included HPV vaccination of girls alone and of girls and boys in the context of screening for cervical cancer. The authors found that with 75% vaccination coverage and an assumption of complete, lifelong vaccine efficacy, routine HPV vaccination of 12-year-old girls…
Microsimulation | Calibration/Validation | Dynamic Transmission | Health/Medicine | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Infectious Diseases | Chronic Disease/Risk | Clinical Care | Economics/Finance | North America