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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This is our final newsletter of the academic year; we will resume in September, 2026.

Recent PhD graduate Ye Shen received the Best Paper Award from the AcademyHealth Child Health Services Research Interest Group for Insurance Dynamics During Childhood in the Fragmented US Health System. 

CHDS’ Allison Portnoy, Nicolas Menzies, and collaborators authored a recent modeling study that examined how the dismantling of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and potential reductions in support from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria (Global Fund) could affect the household economic burden of tuberculosis in low- and middle-income countries. 

CHDS’s Emily Burger led a team, including Jane Kim, Stephen Sy, Mary Caroline Regan, and former postdoctoral fellow Jenny Spencer, as well as other collaborators, to examine the long-term health impacts of switching the HPV vaccination strategy in the United States from the existing multi-dose schedule to a single-dose vaccination schedule. Their work was published recently in the Lancet Regional Health – Americas.

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). A new method and software package for addressing this often unrealistic assumption, msmbayes, was developed by Christopher Jackson, who presented the method in a recent CHDS seminar. 

Radhika Tampi, doctoral student in Health Policy concentrating in Decision Science, successfully defended her dissertation, “Simulation of Policy Levers Across the Tuberculosis Care Cascade.”

Bhatotia K, Gow O, Robinson LA et al. Who Pays When Temperatures Soar? Health Affairs (Millwood). 2026 May; 45(5):507-515.

Cohen BLM, Croke K, Hanage WP et al. Migration-Linked TB Epidemics: How TB Elimination in High-Income Countries Depends on the Success of TB Control in High-Burden Settings. PNAS 2026 May 19;123(21):e2611864123.

Franks PW, Lim LL, Ramsay M et al. The Lancet Commission on Precision Health: Equitable, Data-Driven Health Outcomes for All. Lancet. 2026 May 25:S0140-6736(26)00612-4. Online ahead of print.

Seguin CL, Luviano A, Kuntz KM et al. Cost-Effectiveness of Fecal Immunochemical Testing for Colorectal Cancer in Mexico City: A Microsimulation Modeling Study. J Med Screen. 2026 May 7:9691413261443051. Online ahead of print.

Shen Y, Simon L, Yu H. Effects of the National Health Service Corps Expansion on Dental Care Use in Underserved Areas. J Am Dent Assoc. 2026 May 21:S0002-8177(26)00182-0. Online ahead of print.

Swartwood NA, Singh N, Mortazavi SA et al. Differences in Tuberculosis Prevalence by Sex in Low- and Middle-Income Countries over 1993-2025: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. PLoS Med. 2026 May 22;23(5):e1005114.

Ward ZJ, Moraes FY, Scott AM et al. Estimating Global Cancer Survival and Mortality from 1990 to 2050: A Simulation-Based Analysis of 17 Cancers. Lancet Oncol. 2026 May;27(5):560-568.

Ward ZJ, Ynoe Moraes F, Scott AM et al. Estimating the Impact of Scaling up Workforce Personnel on Global Cancer Mortality from 2030 to 2050: A Simulation-Based Analysis of 17 Cancers and 18 Personnel Types. The Lancet Oncology. 2026 May;27(5):569-579.

Ward ZJ, Ynoe Moraes F, Scott AM et al. Estimating Total and Diagnosed Global Cancer Incidence and Stage Distribution from 1990 to 2050: A Simulation-Based Analysis of 17 Cancers. The Lancet Oncology. 2026 May;27(5):551-559.

Wu YS, Kunst N, Győrbiró DM et al. Cost-Effectiveness of Low-Dose CT Lung Cancer Screening Among Individuals That Have Ever Smoked in Norway: A Model-Based Analysis Using NELSON Trial Criteria and Outcomes. Int J Cancer. 2026 May 1;158(9):2452-2465.

CHDS congratulates Ye Shen and Radhika Tampi on their graduation from the Decision Science Track of the PhD Program in Health Policy at Harvard University.

About Shen's Dissertation Defense

About Tampi's Dissertation Defense