Welcome to this month's edition of the Center for Health Decision Science (CHDS) newsletter. Explore recent decision science publications and other resources, upcoming events, and news within the field.

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Sue J. Goldie, speaker

Stephanie Simon, moderator

March 12, 1:00 pm EDT

In-person and virtual

Host: The Studio, Harvard Chan School

The New York Times headline was spare and startling: "Sue Goldie Has Parkinson's Disease." More than two years earlier, Goldie had agreed to let reporter John Branch chronicle her experience living with Parkinson's ––giving him unfiltered access to her life at home and at work, her intense triathlon training, and hundreds of video diaries where she shared her innermost hopes and fears. An intensely private person, she wrestled with the decision to go public but wanted to give voice to the struggle that many people endure silently in the years following diagnosis, and to spark discussion about how people live and work with the uncertainty of this neurodegenerative disease. Goldie also hoped the story would provide a platform for her goals to raise awareness about the benefits of exercise in Parkinson's and the importance of community and connectedness. In this fireside chat, Goldie—a physician, scientist, and renowned educator—will reflect on her journey and share what she has learned from the response to the story and what she hopes to do in her next chapter.

CHDS seminars feature national and international decision science experts. The seminars are virtual via Zoom and require pre-registration using the link provided below.

Speakers share their own perspectives; they do not speak for the Center for Health Decision Science or for Harvard University.

Christopher Jackson, University of Cambridge, UK

April 23, 1:00 pm EDT

Virtual seminar

Multi-state models for changes in a state (e.g. of health or illness) often assume that the transition rate is constant with time spent in the state (the "Markov" assumption). In this seminar, Jackson proposes a new method and software package to relax this often-unrealistic assumption, using hidden states known as "phases." This is motivated by applications such as modelling the duration of infections, modelling time in a detectable state in cancer screening, and modelling cognitive impairment in studies of ageing.

This collection, curated by the Center for Health Decision Science, includes interview-style videos with decision scientists, focusing on their insights and perspectives on the field of decision modeling. This collection was developed by Professor Myriam Hunink during an immersion residency with the Center of Health Decision Science (CHDS) Media Hub.

Assebe LF, Jiao B, Hendrix N et al. Incorporating Equity and Financial Protection Criteria into Essential Benefits Package Design: A Case Study of Infectious Diseases Interventions in Ethiopia. Value Health. 2026 Feb 16:S1098-3015(26)00070-7. Online ahead of print.

Kim S, Pelissari DM, Harada LO et al. Long-Term Mortality Trends Among Individuals with Tuberculosis: A Retrospective Cohort Study of Individuals Diagnosed with Tuberculosis in Brazil. Clin Infect Dis. 2026 Feb 9;82(1):e1-e8.

McNally ES, Marques P, Possik E et al. Cost-Effectiveness of Sodium-Glucose Cotransporter 2 Inhibitors and Glucagon-Like Peptide-1 Receptor Agonists for Patients with High Cardiovascular Risk and Type 2 Diabetes in Canada. CMAJ. 2026 Feb 23;198(7):E249-E259.

Menzies NA, Marks SM. Better Tuberculosis Prevention for Migrants: Necessary But Not Sufficient. The Lancet Public Health. 2026 Feb;11(2):E70-E71.

Pedersen K, Di Silvestre J, Sy S et al. Optimizing Cervical Cancer Screening by Age at Vaccination for Human Papillomavirus: Health and Resource Implications. Ann Intern Med. 2026 Feb 3. Online ahead of print.

Pei PP, Jones M, Hu R et al. Clinical Consequences of Delaying Implementation of Long-Acting Antiretroviral Therapy for People with HIV and Persistent Viremia in the United States. Clin Infect Dis. 2026 Feb 4;81(6):e591-e599.

Portnoy A, Clark RA, Jit M et al. The Potential Impact of Reduced International Donor Funding on the Household Economic Burden of Tuberculosis in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: A Modeling Study. PLoS Med. 2026 Feb 20;23(2):e1004946.

Regan M, Cui H, Swartwood NA et al. The Potential Effect of a Geographically Focused Intervention Against Tuberculosis in the USA: A Simulation Modelling Study. The Lancet Public Health. 2026 Feb; 11(2):E82-E91.

Sinha P, Bhargava M, Dauphinais MR et al. In-Kind Nutritional Supplementation for Persons with Drug-Susceptible Tuberculosis and Their Household Contacts Would be Cost-Effective for Reducing Tuberculosis Incidence and Mortality in Jharkhand, India: A Modeling Study. Clin Infect Dis. 2026 Feb 4;81(6):1126-1134.

Swartwood NA, Cohen T, Marks SM et al. Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Tuberculosis Outcomes in the United States: A Bayesian Analysis. Clin Infect Dis. 2026 Feb 4;81(6):e659-e667.

van Dijk SPJ, Blanco MMK, McMullin JL et al. Patient-Reported Outcomes Across Treatment Strategies in Papillary Thyroid Microcarcinoma: A Meta-Analysis. JAMA Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 2026 Feb 1;152(2):154-162.

van Lieshout Titan A, Dodd PJ, Cohen T et al. Estimating the Number of Incorrect Tuberculosis Diagnoses in Low- and Middle-Income Countries. Nature Medicine. 2026 Feb;32(2):545-552.

Yeh JM, Seguin CL, Stratton KL et al. Benefits, Harms, and Burden of Colorectal Cancer Screening Among Childhood Cancer Survivors Previously Treated With Abdominopelvic Radiation. J Clin Oncol. 2026 Feb;44(4):286-299.

This explainer describes the adverse impacts of the US Environmental Protection Agency’s recent decision to no longer quantify health benefits of reduced air pollution.

Related Harvard Chan School news, EPA will no longer consider health-related monetary benefits of reducing air pollution

CHDS’ Jennifer Yeh and colleagues found that childhood cancer survivors who received abdominopelvic radiation treatment could significantly reduce colorectal cancer occurrence and mortality by initiating screening as early as age 25.

CHDS’ Emily Burger, Jane Kim, Stephen Sy, Allison Portnoy and colleagues at the University of Oslo found that women who receive the HPV vaccine could safely be screened less frequently than current recommendations.

CHDS faculty Nicolas Menzies and colleagues analyzed tuberculosis cases in low and middle-income countries in 2023 and found that there were significant numbers of both false-negative and false-positive tuberculosis diagnoses.

CHDS doctoral student Ye Shen and colleagues modeled the progression of disordered weight control behaviors (DWCB) to eating disorders from early childhood to young adulthood in Canada.

CHDS’s Ankur Pandya, Andrea Luviano, and former students Jinyi Zhu and Lyndon James proposed a method to account for equity weight values in cost-effectiveness analysis in a recent Value in Health article.

Instructor or Assistant Professor, Department of Population Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Division of Child Health Research and Policy