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

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Lisa Robinson, speaker

October 22, 12:30 PM - 2:00 PM ET

Virtual or in-person (London, UK); free

Host: Global Health Economics Centre, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

Any form of economic evaluation requires normative judgements about how to define value. For health and longevity, cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA) relies on non-monetary measures, particularly quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) or disability-adjusted life years (DALYs), while benefit-cost analysis (BCA) relies on monetary estimates of willingness to pay (WTP). This presentation will focus on the similarities and differences between these types of analysis, including the relationship between the monetary thresholds used in CEA and the WTP estimates used in BCA.

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

CHDS welcomes incoming student Armand Zimmerman to the Decision Science track of Harvard’s PhD Program in Health Policy beginning Fall, 2026. Zimmerman holds a Master of Science in Global Health from Duke University and a Bachelor of Science in Biological Sciences from the University of California, Santa Barbara. 

CHDS faculty Jagpreet Chhatwal and collaborator Rachael Fleurence examined how the principles outlined in the 2025 HTAi Global Policy Forum (GPF) report could be applied in operational practice. Their recent article discussed where generative artificial intelligence may support specific health technology assessment (HTA) activities and how HTA organizations can evaluate, oversee, and manage the use of these tools as adoption progresses.

CHDS contributed in many ways to the 48th Annual Meeting of the Society for Medical Decision Making (SMDM), held in Oslo, Norway, from June 28 to July 1, 2026. The meeting theme was “Medical Decision Making in Uncertain Times.”

CHDS faculty Ankur Pandya and colleagues examined Oregon’s Medicaid priority‑setting experiment as a case of participatory governance in a recently published article. The authors focused on the Oregon Health Services Commission (OHSC), an eleven‑person citizen body established in 1989 to create a prioritized list of condition–treatment pairs for Medicaid coverage based on cost-effectiveness and public values.

CHDS’ Sarah Skye Yoden and Ankur Pandya coauthored a WHO Bulletin perspective article with Neil Singh Bedi that described how decision science methods paired with fair process can improve the transparency, legitimacy, and accountability of climate-health policy recommendations. 

Arterburn D, Curtis LH, Toh S et al. Leveraging Real-World Evidence to Inform Regulatory, Clinical, and Coverage Decisions Related to Glucagon-Like Peptide-1-Based Therapies: Synopsis of a National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases Workshop. Ann Intern Med. 2026 Jun 30. Online ahead of print.

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 Jun;29(6):996-1003.

Barbosa C, Chen Q, Sahinkoc M et al. Impact of Enhanced Practices on Opioid Overdose Deaths: A Community-Based Modeling Approach. Addiction. 2026 Jul;121(7):1747-1760.

Bekkevold T, Laake I, Feiring B et al. HPV Genotype Distribution in Cervical Cancer and High-Grade Lesions in Norway, and Early Vaccine Impact. Int J Cancer. 2026 Aug 28. Online ahead of print.

Borregaard B, Gidsel RH, Siebert U et al. Hospital Costs of Microaxial Flow Pump Therapy in Cardiogenic Shock: A DanGer Shock Trial Analysis. J Am Coll Cardiol. 2026 Aug 31:S0735-1097(26)07513-3. Online ahead of print.

Chang LS, Hassan S, Chasse J et al. Safety of a Remote Disease Management Program to Improve Sodium-Glucose Cotransporter-2 Inhibitors and Glucagon-Like Peptide-1 Receptor Agonists Prescribing in Type 2 Diabetes with Elevated Cardiovascular or Kidney Risk. Am Heart J. 2026 Jun;296:107359.

Chetlapalli K, Ito S, Ng DQ et al. Haploidentical Transplant, Gene Therapy, and Standard Care in Sickle Cell Disease: A Cost-Effectiveness Analysis. Blood. 2026 Aug 13;148(7):896-909.

Chhatwal J, Aaron A, Zhong H et al. Projected Health Benefits and Cost Offsets from the United States National Hepatitis C Elimination Initiative. Nat Commun. 2026 Jul 2;17(1):8237.

Cradock AL, Barrett JL, McCulloch SM et al. Cost-Effectiveness of Installing Water Dispensers in Massachusetts' Schools to Improve Nutrition Environments, Health, and Health Equity. J Acad Nutr Diet. 2026 Jun;126(6):156135.

Figi JT, Pearson H, Ahkouk S et al. READY-T1D-Assessment of Research and Service Delivery Readiness for Paediatric Type 1 Diabetes: A Multi-Country Cross-Sectional Study. EClinicalMedicine. 2026 Jul 9;97:104067.

Fleurence RL, Qureshi R, Aggarwal R et al. The Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence in Systematic Literature Reviews: A Rapid Review of the Literature. Value Health. 2026 Jul 14. Online ahead of print.

Hricak H, Ward ZJ, Moraes FY et al. Cancer Workforce-a Global Crisis: A Lancet Oncology Commission. Lancet Oncol. 2026 Jun;27(6):e279-e316. Review.

Khaniyev T, Işık ES, Chhatwal J et al. A Metamodel-Based General-Purpose Autocalibration Tool for Simulation Models. Med Decis Making. 2026 Jun 10. Online ahead of print.

Kim DeLuca E, Wu AC, Zhang F et al. Impact of Prenatal Cell-Free DNA Screening on Sex Chromosome Aneuploidy Diagnoses in Infants and Children. Prenat Diagn. 2026 Jul;46(8):1213-1222.

Lyndon S, Gibbons JB, Straub L et al. Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Retreatment for Recurrent Depression: A Large Real-World Multisite Cohort Study. Acta Psychiatr Scand. 2026 Jul 30. Online ahead of print.

Mandal S, Satyanarayana S, McQuaid F et al. A Model for the Epidemiological Impact of Tuberculosis Policy Options. Bull World Health Organ. 2026 Aug 1;104(8):540-550.

Matay L, Getnet F, Forzy T et al. Informing Local Health Priority Setting: District-Level Estimation of Institutional Delivery and Postnatal Care Coverage in Rural Settings of Ethiopia. SSM - Health Systems. 2026 Dec;7:100245.

Meraner D, Arvandi M, Pajk K et al. Migration Background and Diabetes Technology Use at Diagnosis and Follow-up in Children and Adolescents with Type 1 Diabetes: A Single-Centre Study. Acta Diabetol. 2026 Jul 29. Online ahead of print.

Montes-Martinez M, Welter LS, Boon P et al. The Economic Burden of Dementia in Europe: COIN-Eu Dementia. J Alzheimers Dis. 2026 Jul 14. Online ahead of print.

Muruganand A, Mahadevan S, Pandya A et al. Frankenstein or My Fair Lady? Lessons on Participatory Governance from Oregon Medicaid's Priority-Setting Experiment. J Health Polit Policy Law. 2026 Jun 5;12650587. Online ahead of print.

Pandya A, Zhu J, Luviano A et al. A Threshold Inequality Aversion Parameter Approach to Interpret Distributional Cost-Effectiveness Analysis Results. Value Health. 2026 Jun;29(6):946-952.

Papon V, Schöpf J, Litt JS et al. Harms and Negative or Unintended Consequences of Social Prescribing: A Scoping Review. Healthcare (Basel). 2026 Jul 1;14(13):1947.

Pei P, Qoshe L, Florance G et al. Component Clinical and Cost Outcomes Complementing Value of Information: Case Study of a Tuberculosis Diagnostics Clinical Trial. Pharmacoeconomics. 2026 Jun;44(6):653-664.

Pitkala KH, Aalto UL, Rautiainen LJ et al. Effects of Nature-Based Group Intervention on Cognition and Nature Connectedness Among Lonely Older Adults Living in Assisted Living Facilities - Secondary Analyses of an RCT. J Am Med Dir Assoc. 2026 Jun;27(6):106203.

Portnoy A, Burger EA. HPV Vaccination and Early Declines in Cervical Cancer Deaths. Lancet. 2026 Jul 11;408(10550):103-105.

Rönn RMM, Kourtis AP, Liang Y et al. Quantifying the Number of People Who Would Benefit from HIV Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) in the United States: A Comparison of Behavioral, Acquisition-Risk Based, and Economic Metrics. Ann Epidemiol. 2026 Jun;118:110079.

Sahinkoc M, Nemutlu GS, El-Serag HB et al. Cost-Effectiveness of HES V2.0 and GALAD for Hepatocellular Carcinoma Surveillance in Patients with Cirrhosis. Hepatol Commun. 2026 Jul 20;10(8):e01005.

Schneller M, Jagusch F, Calio B et al. Tremor in Multiple System Atrophy: A Systematic Literature Review. J Neural Transm (Vienna). 2026 Jul;133(7):1169-1182.

Siddiqi OK, Jahn B, Rochau U et al. Cost-Effectiveness Analysis of Xpert MTB/RIF Ultra for the Diagnosis of HIV-Associated Tuberculous Meningitis. Clin Infect Dis. 2026 Jun 9. Online ahead of print.

Siebert U, Arvandi M, Boon P et al. The Economic Burden of Neurological Disorders in Europe - COIN-Eu: Study Design and Analytic Framework. Eur J Health Econ. 2026 Jul 28. Online ahead of print.

Simms KT, de Bondt D, Killen J et al. Benefits, Harms, and Cervical Cancer Elimination Timing of Human Papillomavirus Screening Approaches Tailored to Birth Cohort as a Proxy for Vaccination Status in the United States: A Comparative Modeling Study. J Natl Cancer Inst Monogr. 2026 Aug 1;2026(73):126-136.

Spencer JC, Burger EA, Portnoy A et al. Adapting Sexual Behavior Survey Data to Parameterize an Agent-Based Model of Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Transmission. Med Decis Making. 2026 Jul;46(5):591-600.

Thompson RR, Ryuk DK, Pelissari DM et al. The Impact of Directly Observed Therapy on Successful Tuberculosis Treatment: A Statistical Analysis of National Notifications Data. Open Forum Infect Dis. 2026 Jul 16;13(7):ofag434.

Tonorezos ES, Yeh JM. Quantifying Survival and Mortality in Childhood Cancer Survivors. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2026 Jun 2;35(6):791-792.

van Dijk SPJ, Blanco MMK, Akhavan A et al. Cost-Effectiveness of Radiofrequency Ablation for Benign Non-Functioning Thyroid Nodules: A Systematic Review. Clin Otolaryngol. 2026 Aug 2. Online ahead of print.

Ward ZJ. Risks of Modelling Cancer Outcomes When No Data Exist - Authors' Reply. Lancet Oncol. 2026 Aug;27(8):e363.

Welter L, Kruse C, Montes-Martinez M et al. The Costs of Parkinson's Disease in Europe: Results of the Costs of Illness in Neurology Initiative. Mov Disord. 2026 Aug 27. Online ahead of print.

Wu YS, Burger EA, Holmboe F et al. Integrating Structured Expert Elicitation with External Evidence to Inform Earlier Reimbursement Decisions: A Norwegian Case Study of Selpercatinib for Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer. Pharmacoecon Open. 2026 Jun 18;10:679-694.

Yan R, Min JE, Kurz M et al. Comparative Effectiveness of Alternative Times to Opioid Agonist Treatment Taper Initiation on Taper Completion and All-Cause Mortality among People with Opioid Use Disorder: A Retrospective Population-Based Target Trial Emulation Study in British Columbia, Canada, 2010-2020. Addiction. 2026 Jun 2. Online ahead of print.

Yu H, Zhu J. Anticoagulation in Device-Detected Atrial Fibrillation-Uncertainty and Heterogeneity in Value. JAMA Netw Open. 2026 Jun 1;9(6):e2617220. 

Zhang DS, Rajan A, Islam S et al. Trends in Sodium-Glucose Cotransporter 2 Inhibitor and Glucagon‑Like Peptide‑1 Receptor Agonist Prescription Rates Among Patients With Type 2 Diabetes: An Epic Cosmos Real-World Data Analysis, 2014-2024. AACE Endocrinol Diabetes. 2026 Jul-Aug;13(4):589-595.