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

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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.

Marissa Reitsma, Stanford University

May 14, 1:00 pm EDT

Syndemics are interacting epidemics, driven by social and structural factors, which can concentrate excess disease burden among marginalized populations. Integrated interventions can more efficiently address syndemics, including the syndemic of substance use disorder, overdose, HIV, and hepatitis C virus among people who use drugs. We developed an agent-based model of this syndemic, parameterized with real-world data, to inform the design and delivery of integrated treatment and harm reduction interventions for people who use drugs.

CHDS faculty Jagpreet Chhatwal, together with collaborator Rachael Fleurence, has received the Society for Medical Decision Making’s John M. Eisenberg Award for Practical Application of Medical Decision Making Research.

Ye Shen, doctoral student in Health Policy concentrating in Decision Science, successfully defended her thesis, “Insights into the Fragmented US Health System through Simulation Modeling: Childhood Insurance, Care Utilization, and Outcomes.”

CHDS faculty Uwe Siebert has been chosen to receive the 2026 Career Achievement Award from the Society for Medical Decision Making (SMDM) in recognition of his significant contributions to the field of medical decision making.

Sarah Baum, doctoral student in Global Health and Population, and CHDS faculty Nicolas Menzies recently published a study in JAMA Health Forum that analyzed more than 16 million births across 33 U.S. states between 2012 and 2022 to examine policies that require clinicians to offer syphilis screening at multiple points during pregnancy in addition to early prenatal testing. 

Health policy decisions often rely on decision-analytic computer models to compare costs and health outcomes when direct evidence is incomplete. Although we can almost never eliminate uncertainty, we can manage it, as discussed by Mark Strong in a recent CHDS seminar.

This Lancet Oncology analysis used microsimulation modeling to estimate the global cancer incidence and stage at diagnosis for 17 cancer types between 1990 and 2050.

Cookson R, Kaur G, Skarda I et al. The Inequity-Adjusted Incremental Cost-Effectiveness Ratio. Value Health. 2026 Mar 12. Online ahead of print.

Cookson R, Kaur G, Skarda I et al. A Method for Comparing Health Inequality Impact Magnitudes, with an Illustration for Hypothetical Treatments of 1336 Diseases. Pharmacoeconomics. 2026 Mar;44(3):317-328.

de Bondt DD, Simms KT, Naslazi E et al. Optimal Cervical Cancer Screening Strategies for Unvaccinated and HPV-Vaccinated Cohorts in the United States: A Comprehensive Comparative Modeling Analysis. Lancet Reg Health Am. 2026 Apr 17;58:101474.

Dowd WN, Chen Q, Barbosa C et al. Estimating Community-Level Prevalence of Opioid Use Disorder: Extrapolating from Medicaid Claims Data and Other Publicly Available Data Sources in Ohio, USA. Addiction. 2026 Apr;121(4):944-954.

Han J, Luviano A, Pandya A. Reanalyzing Value Assessments in American Heart Association Clinical Practice Guidelines Using Health Years in Total Instead of Quality-Adjusted Life Years. Value Health. 2026 Apr;29(4):P600-P604.

Jiao B, Iversen I, Sato R et al. Potential Antenatal Care-Mediated Benefits of Delivering Maternal Immunization in Five Low- and Middle-Income Countries: A Modeling Analysis. Vaccine. 2026 Apr 19;79:128469.

Kanwal F, Feng Z, Hoshida Y et al. Development and Validation of Risk Stratification Models for Hepatocellular Cancer: A Framework from the Translational Liver Cancer Consortium. Hepatology. 2026 Apr 20. Online ahead of print.

Lin CH, Yan BW, Yeung V et al. Cost-Effectiveness Analysis of Guideline-Directed Medical Therapy Uptitration After Acute Decompensated Heart Failure from US and UK Perspectives. J Card Fail. 2026 Apr;32(4):778-782.

Mortazavi SA, Swartwood NA, Singh N et al. Urban and Rural Prevalence of Tuberculosis in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. PLoS Med. 2026 Apr 6;23(4):e1004779.

Pandya A, Zhu J. ApoB and Resilient Cost-Effectiveness of Statin Intensity. JAMA. 2026 Apr 8;335(17):1485-1486.

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 Apr;179(4):497-505.

Pega F, Momen NC, Agyemang SA et al. Valuing Reductions in the Risk of Death in Benefit–Cost Analyses of Environment- and Climate-Health Actions. Bull World Health Organ. 2026 Apr 1;104(4):246-258.

Ryser MD, Bravo IG, Campos NG et al. IPVS Consensus Statement on the Natural History of Cervical Human Papillomavirus Infection. J Infect Dis. 2026 Apr 29;233(4):735-744.

Shen Y, Beccia AL, Menzies NA et al. Development of Disordered Weight Control Behaviors and its Progression to Eating Disorders in Canada: A Nationally Representative Microsimulation. Int J Eat Disord. 2026 Apr;59(4):715-723.

Su JS, Stover J, Pretorius C et al. The Benefits of Investments to Combat HIV, Tuberculosis, and Malaria for Primary Healthcare from 2000 to 2023: An Economic Modeling Analysis. PLoS Med. 2026 Apr 8;23(4):e1005036.

Yu H, Neumann, PJ, Kim DD et al. Cost-Effectiveness Thresholds Used in the United States vs Most Favored Nations. HealthAffairs Scholar. 2026;4(4):qxag081.

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