Resources Repository
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ArticlePublication 2021Rational Policymaking during a Pandemic
Policymaking during a pandemic can be extremely challenging. As COVID-19 is a new disease and …
Policymaking during a pandemic can be extremely challenging. As COVID-19 is a new disease and its global impacts are unprecedented, decisions are taken in a highly uncertain, complex, and rapidly changing environment. In such a context, in which human lives and the economy are at stake, the authors argue that using ideas and constructs from modern decision theory, even informally, will make policymaking a more responsible and transparent process.
Priority Setting/Ethics | Decision Theory | Infectious Diseases | Policy/Regulation | Government/Law | Health/Medicine | Science/Technology | Global -
ReportPublication 2017Communicating Science Effectively: A Research Agenda
Science and technology are embedded in virtually every aspect of modern life. As a result, …
Science and technology are embedded in virtually every aspect of modern life. As a result, people face an increasing need to integrate information from science with their personal values and other considerations as they make important life decisions about medical care, the safety of foods, what to do about climate change, and many other issues. Communicating science effectively, however, is a complex task and an acquired skill. Moreover, the approaches to communicating science that will…
Priority Setting/Ethics | Decision Psychology | Preferences/Values | Social Determinants | Climate/Environment | Culture/Society | Energy/Engineering | Education/Labor | Health/Medicine | Science/Technology | North America -
Online LearningVideo, Teaching Resource 2019Colloquium on Misinformation About Science in the Public Sphere
This colloquium was held in April 2019 at Irvine, CA in and was co-sponsored by …
This colloquium was held in April 2019 at Irvine, CA in and was co-sponsored by the Rita Allen Foundation, Science Sandbox, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and the KAVLI Foundation. Misinformation about science in the public sphere is of great concern to scientists and to those who seek to communicate and support the use of science in public debate and decision-making. Participants examined the growing body of research on the factors that make people more or…
Priority Setting/Ethics | Decision Psychology | Preferences/Values | Culture/Society | Energy/Engineering | Government/Law | Health/Medicine | Science/Technology | North America -
Resource PackPublication, Teaching Resource 2021Resource Pack: Role of Heuristics in Avalanche Education
Making decisions about backcountry skiing requires one to predict, manage, and mitigate avalanche risk. Individuals …
Making decisions about backcountry skiing requires one to predict, manage, and mitigate avalanche risk. Individuals need to understand and be comfortable with the language of probability, as well as appreciate the cognitive biases that can come into play in the context of decision making. This collection includes articles that range from early attempts to identify “heuristic traps,” based on a retrospective analysis of avalanche accidents in the United States more than 20 years ago, to…
Probability/Bayes | Decision Psychology | Injuries/Accidents | Climate/Environment | Culture/Society | College | Graduate | Doctoral | Professional | Critical Thinking/Analysis | Decision Making/Leadership -
ArticlePublication 2021Health Opportunity Cost Threshold for CEA in the U.S.
Using a modeled cohort of 100,000 individuals in the United States with private health insurance, …
Using a modeled cohort of 100,000 individuals in the United States with private health insurance, the authors simulated the short-term mortality and morbidity resulting from increased premium related cancelation of insurance coverage. The authors used this model to estimate cost-effectiveness thresholds, in dollars per quality-adjusted life year (QALY) gained based on health opportunity costs. They reported the number of persons who dropped insurance coverage, resulting number of additional deaths and QALYs lost from mortality and…
Priority Setting/Ethics | Health Outcomes | Evidence Synthesis | Microsimulation | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Health Systems | Policy/Regulation | Health/Medicine | North America -
Resource PackPublication, Teaching Resource 2024Resource Pack: Ethiopian Health Decision Sciences
This resource pack provides a curated set of peer-reviewed articles that represent the growing evidence …
This resource pack provides a curated set of peer-reviewed articles that represent the growing evidence base for decision making and priority setting in Ethiopia - with an emphasis on improving health, reducing inequity, and preventing health-related impoverishment. Curated by Dr. Stéphane Verguet at the Center for Health Decision Science, most of the papers reflect work done as part of the Disease Control Priorities-Ethiopia (DCP-E) project. The pack provides scholarship that spans maternal-child health, vaccine-preventable disease, infectious…
Priority Setting/Ethics | Costing Methods | Health Outcomes | Mathematical Models | Benefit-Cost Analysis | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Health Systems | Health/Medicine | Sub-Saharan Africa | Graduate | Doctoral | Professional | Critical Thinking/Analysis | Decision Making/Leadership | Policy Translation -
ArticlePublication 2020Bayes' Theorem, COVID-19, and Screening Tests
This article reviews the implications of increased testing for COVID-19 using reverse transcriptase polymerase chain …
This article reviews the implications of increased testing for COVID-19 using reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (rRT-PCR) through the application of Bayes’ Theorem for three hypothetical, stylized case scenarios. The scenarios involve three patients with a low, moderate, and high pre-test probability of COVID-19 infection. The category of low probability would include "asymptomatic individuals in a presumed low prevalence environment" and might vary from 10 to 20%. The category of moderate probability would include "individuals…
Probability/Bayes | Test Performance | Infectious Diseases | Clinical Care | Health/Medicine -
Tools/ModelsInteractive, Teaching Resource 2020Interactive Graphic: Interpreting a COVID-19 Test Result
Currently, the most common diagnostic test for COVID-19 relies on reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction …
Currently, the most common diagnostic test for COVID-19 relies on reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), and most often uses samples obtained from the respiratory tract by nasopharyngeal swab. This interactive graphic demonstrates the influence of the prior probability of COVID-19, the test sensitivity (i.e., the probability of a positive test conditional on disease presence), and the test specificity (i.e., the probability of a negative test conditional on disease absence) on the post-test probability of…
Probability/Bayes | Test Performance | Infectious Diseases | Clinical Care | Health/Medicine | Science/Technology | High School | College | Graduate | Doctoral | Professional | Graphics/Visualization | Quantitative Literacy -
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 | Test Performance | Infectious Diseases | Health/Medicine | Science/Technology | Global