Decision Science for Public Health

RDS 202 Subject & Catalog Number

Description

Challenges in public health policy and clinical medicine are marked by complexity, uncertainty, competing priorities and resource constraints. This course is designed to introduce the student to the methods and applications of decision analysis and cost-effectiveness analysis in clinical and public health decision making. The objectives of the course are: (1) to provide a basic introduction to the methods and tools of decision science and to recognize when, how, and in what context they can provide value in clinical and public health decision making; (2) to equip students with the ability to structure and bound a decision problem logically (articulating the objective, perspective, and time horizon) and to identify key elements (alternatives, uncertainties, and outcomes) and influential factors (preferences, risk attitudes, values); (3) to provide students with basic skills in revising probabilities given new information, building and analyzing decision trees, and conducting a cost-effectiveness analysis; (4) to enable students to thoughtfully and critically evaluate published analyses conducted to evaluate or inform clinical strategies, health technologies, and public health policies in developed and developing countries.

This course serves as a pre-requisite for RDS 285. Students cannot take RDS 202 if they have already taken RDS 280 or RDS 286 (exceptions only allowed with permission of RDS 202 instructor).