Resources Repository
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ReviewPublication 2016Decision Support for Infectious Disease Control
This report from RAND reviews decision-support tools, including models and nonmodeling approaches, that are relevant to …
This report from RAND reviews decision-support tools, including models and nonmodeling approaches, that are relevant to infectious disease prevention, detection, and response and aligns these tools with real-world policy questions that the tools can help address. This overview is designed to help modelers and other technical experts understand the questions that policymakers will raise and the decisions they must make. The report also presents policymakers with the capabilities and limitations of the different tools that may…
Health/Medicine | Military/Defense | State-Transition | Mathematical Models | Dynamic Transmission | Microsimulation | Dynamic Simulation | Infectious Diseases | Global Governance | Government/Law | Global -
ReviewPublication 2015Agent-Based Models and Microsimulation
This article reviews the principles and applications of agent-based models (ABMs). ABMs are computational models …
This article reviews the principles and applications of agent-based models (ABMs). ABMs are computational models used to simulate the actions and interactions of “agents” within a system. Usually, each agent has a set of rules for how he or she responds to the environment and to other agents. These models are used to gain insight into the emergent behavior of complex systems with many agents, in which the emergent behavior depends upon the micro-level behavior…
Health/Medicine | Military/Defense | State-Transition | Mathematical Models | Microsimulation | Dynamic Simulation | Energy/Engineering | Science/Technology -
ArticlePublication 2023Cost-Effectiveness of Pharmacist Prescribing for Managing Hypertension
This study estimates the cost-effectiveness of implementing a pharmacist-prescribing intervention to improve blood pressure control …
This study estimates the cost-effectiveness of implementing a pharmacist-prescribing intervention to improve blood pressure control in the US. A cost-effectiveness analysis was conducted using a Markov model based on the pharmacist-prescribing intervention used in The Alberta Clinical Trial in Optimizing Hypertension (or RxACTION). Outcomes included cardiovascular (CV) events, end-stage kidney disease events, life years, quality-adjusted life years (QALYs), lifetime costs, and lifetime incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER). Costs were based on reimbursement rates, published literature, national…
Health/Medicine | State-Transition | Mathematical Models | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Chronic Disease/Risk | Clinical Care | North America -
ArticlePublication 2023Benefits and Costs of COVID-19 Vaccine Mandates
Written mid-pandemic, this article evaluates the direct costs and health benefits of requiring COVID-19 vaccinations …
Written mid-pandemic, this article evaluates the direct costs and health benefits of requiring COVID-19 vaccinations for U.S. federal employees and healthcare and private sector workers. These mandates were controversial and some were halted by litigation. If they had been implemented as intended, the net benefits would depend on the course of the pandemic. If a more transmissible variant (such as Omicron) emerges, the net benefits may be large. If the pandemic instead fades, the benefits…
Health/Medicine | State-Transition | Mathematical Models | Benefit-Cost Analysis | Infectious Diseases | Policy/Regulation | Business/Industry | Economics/Finance | Government/Law | North America -
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…
Health/Medicine | State-Transition | Decision Theory | Costing Methods | Health Outcomes | Decision Analysis | Infectious Diseases | Policy/Regulation | Economics/Finance | Government/Law | Middle East & North Africa -
ArticlePublication 2019Cost-Effectiveness of Community-Based Childhood Obesity Prevention Interventions in Australia
This study examined the cost-effectiveness of community-based obesity prevention interventions (CBIs) consisting of strategies to …
This study examined the cost-effectiveness of community-based obesity prevention interventions (CBIs) consisting of strategies to promote healthy eating and physical activity for Australian children aged between 5-18 years. A multiple cohort Markov model that simulates diseases associated with overweight and obesity was used to estimate the health benefits, measured as health-adjusted life years (HALYs) and healthcare-related cost offsets from diseases averted due to exposure to the intervention. Health and cost outcomes were estimated over the…
Health/Medicine | State-Transition | Health Outcomes | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Child/Nutrition | Chronic Disease/Risk | Health Systems | Clinical Care | Food/Agriculture | Oceania -
ArticlePublication 2017Modeled Health Benefits of a SSB Tax across Different Socioeconomic Groups in Australia
This analysis assessed the potential cost-effectiveness, health gains, and financial impacts of a 20% sugar-sweetened …
This analysis assessed the potential cost-effectiveness, health gains, and financial impacts of a 20% sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) tax for Australia. Australia-specific price elasticities were used to predict decreases in SSB consumption for each socio-economic quintile. Changes in body mass index (BMI) were based on SSB consumption, BMI from the Australian Health Survey, and energy balance equations. Markov cohort models were used to estimate the health-adjusted life years (HALYs) gained, healthcare costs saved, and out-of-pocket costs…
Health/Medicine | State-Transition | Mathematical Models | Chronic Disease/Risk | Policy/Regulation | Economics/Finance | Food/Agriculture | Government/Law | Oceania -
Lesson/ModuleVideo, Teaching Resource 2018Medical Decision Making and Decision Analysis
This video is intended to provide an introduction to decision analysis in the context of …
This video is intended to provide an introduction to decision analysis in the context of medicine and public health and includes a discussion of the goals and elements of a decision analysis, introduces the concept of decision trees, and highlights how Markov models can be used to consider more complex disease decisions. This video is part of the Conducting Cost-Effectiveness Analysis with VA Data (HCEA) free course offered by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs…
Health/Medicine | State-Transition | Mathematical Models | Decision Analysis | North America | College | Graduate | Doctoral | Critical Thinking/Analysis | Decision Making/Leadership | Quantitative Literacy -
Resource PackWeb Portal, Teaching Resource 2018Resource Pack: Mental Health and Modeling
This resource pack, curated by the Center for Health Decision Science, features resources on modeling …
This resource pack, curated by the Center for Health Decision Science, features resources on modeling approaches applied to mental health. We aim to provide an overview of different techniques to guide researchers and practitioners in applying decision science and economic modeling to this public health challenge. More specifically, this resource pack contains review articles comparing different modeling techniques in the evaluation of treatments for depression, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. The majority of articles in this…
Health/Medicine | State-Transition | Costing Methods | Health Outcomes | Evidence Synthesis | Mathematical Models | Microsimulation | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Chronic Disease/Risk | Mental Health | North America | Europe