Resources Repository
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EditorialPublication 2020Waiting for Certainty on COVID-19 Antibody Tests — At What Cost?
This perspective anticipates the availability of serologic antibody testing and considers its potential usefulness in mitigation …
This perspective anticipates the availability of serologic antibody testing and considers its potential usefulness in mitigation policy to reduce COVID-19 transmission. For example: Could we screen for serologic antibodies as a proxy for possible immunity and identify people who could return to the workplace with less severe mitigation measures? The authors acknowledge the uncertainties raised by many policy actors, including the WHO, such as, "Do antibodies confer immunity and, if so, for how long? How accurate is…
Probability/Bayes | Technology Assessment | Global | Test Performance | Infectious Diseases | Health Systems | Policy/Regulation | Government/Law | Health/Medicine | North America -
BookPublication 1980Clinical Decision Analysis
This text was conceived and developed in the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health …
This text was conceived and developed in the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health at the Center for the Analysis of Health Practices. The book had its origins in a set of classroom materials developed during the academic year 1974-75 for an elective course in medical decision making at the Harvard Medical School. In this book students are shown how to structure clinical decision problems, how to systematically formulate the intertwining roles of diagnosis and treatment, how to…
Probability/Bayes | State-Transition | Global | Preferences/Values | Costing Methods | Health Outcomes | Test Performance | Value of Information | Decision Analysis | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Infectious Diseases | Child/Nutrition | Chronic Disease/Risk | Economics/Finance | Health/Medicine | North America | Europe | Graduate | Doctoral | Critical Thinking/Analysis | Decision Making/Leadership | Quantitative Literacy -
Resource PackPublication, Teaching Resource 2023Resource Pack: Diagnostic Tests, Bayes, and COVID-19
This resource pack provides a curated set of articles, perspectives, and interactives about diagnostic testing …
This resource pack provides a curated set of articles, perspectives, and interactives about diagnostic testing for COVID-19. The pack provides materials that will be particularly useful for educators who are teaching diagnostic test performance, value of information, and probability revision using Bayes’ theorem. The majority of papers focus on PCR or rapid antigen testing on samples obtained from the respiratory tract by nasopharyngeal swab. The mechanism of false negative results (e.g., timing of sample collection…
Probability/Bayes | Global | Test Performance | Value of Information | Decision Analysis | Health/Medicine | Science/Technology | High School | College | Graduate | Doctoral | Professional | Critical Thinking/Analysis | Graphics/Visualization | Quantitative Literacy -
ArticlePublication 2022Economic Value of Clinical Artificial Intelligence
Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly used in clinical applications. Nevertheless, its flexibility and difficulties around …
Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly used in clinical applications. Nevertheless, its flexibility and difficulties around collecting data on its clinical impacts make value assessment challenging. This article uses a value framework as the basis for assessing how AI may create value depending on how it is used. Authors also provide advice to health economists seeking to model AI’s clinical impacts. There are multiple ways that AI challenges traditional health technology assessment methodology. Authors highlight several…
Technology Assessment | Global | Value of Information | Economics/Finance | Science/Technology -
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…
State-Transition | Middle East & North Africa | Decision Theory | Costing Methods | Health Outcomes | Decision Analysis | Infectious Diseases | Policy/Regulation | Economics/Finance | 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 -
BookPublication 2019Non-Communicable Disease Prevention: Best Buys, Wasted Buys, Contestable Buys
Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are the leading cause of death worldwide, and the majority of these …
Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are the leading cause of death worldwide, and the majority of these deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries. This book provides practical guidelines and lessons learned through real-world case studies. It is intended to be informative to NCD program managers, policy officers and decision-makers in low- and middle-income countries, who need to comparatively assess interventions for the prevention and control of NCDs.The authors emphasize the importance of context in NCD control…
Technology Assessment | Global | Priority Setting/Ethics | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Infectious Diseases | Chronic Disease/Risk | Health Systems | Policy/Regulation | Health/Medicine -
ReportPublication 2018Understanding the Economics of Microbial Threats: Proceedings of a Workshop
This report follows a June 2018, Forum on Microbial Threats that was held at the …
This report follows a June 2018, Forum on Microbial Threats that was held at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. This was a 1.5-day public workshop with the goal being an assessment of the current understanding of the interaction of infectious disease threats and economic activity in order to suggest future areas of research. This workshop built on prior work of the Forum and aimed to build more mutual understanding between those in…
Technology Assessment | Global | Health Outcomes | Evidence Synthesis | Infectious Diseases | Policy/Regulation | Global Governance | Clinical Care | Business/Industry | Economics/Finance | Health/Medicine -
Resource PackWeb Portal, Teaching Resource 2018Resource Pack: Cervical Cancer Models
This resource pack, curated by the Center for Health Decision Science, is a collection of …
This resource pack, curated by the Center for Health Decision Science, is a collection of models of HPV-related cervical cancer, differing in design, structure and features based on analytic objectives. In many ways, HPV and its related diseases represent a prototypical public health problem given the communicable and non-communicable nature of disease, opportunities for intervention along the entire disease spectrum (e.g., primary and secondary prevention, diagnosis, treatment), the varied ages at which interventions are targeted…
State-Transition | Global | Mathematical Models | Dynamic Transmission | Microsimulation | Calibration/Validation | Dynamic Simulation | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Infectious Diseases | Chronic Disease/Risk | Health Systems | Clinical Care | Business/Industry | Economics/Finance | Health/Medicine | Science/Technology