Resources

Health Technology Assessment International (HTAi). HTAi is a professional society that promotes the development, communication, understanding and use of effective technologies and efficient use of resources in health care. In addition to meetings, policy fora and interest groups, HTAi provides access to a vortal that presents information of interest about Health Technology Assessment. HTAi publishes the International Journal of Technology Assessment in Health Care (IJTAHC). a quarterly journal on the economic, social, ethical, medical and public health implications of health technology.

INFORMS. INFORMS is an international association for Operations Research and Analytics. They publish 16 journals on topics ranging from decision analysis to management and marketing sciences, and host a publication library. Their resource center offers information about O.R. and analytics, educational programs and material for students, faculty and others, and a video library with on-demand access to selected conference presentations. The Decision Analysis Society, part of INFORMS, focuses on decision-making in public and private enterprise.

International Health Economics Association (iHEA). iHEA is an organization working to support the application of economics to health and health care systems, and assist health economists with career growth. iHEA facilitates biennial congresses, disseminates information on events, provides public access to research papers, and hosts a career center with job opportunities. Members include over 2,000 professionals from more than 80 countries. Additional member only content includes a membership directory, access to webinars, and other educational resources.

International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR).  ISPOR is an organization founded to advance the policy, science, and practice of pharmacoeconomics and health outcomes research. ISPOR publishes Value in Health, containing research articles in methods and application of economic evaluation, outcomes research, and policy. Other resources include publications, best practices for outcomes research, a health technology resource library, patient centered resources and a scientific presentations database. ISPOR hosts an education portal that provides information on short-courses on economics, modeling, outcomes, and preferences, as well as webinars, distance learning and HTA training.

International Society for Quality of Life Research (ISOQOL). ISOQOL is a society to advance the scientific study of health-related quality of life and other patient-centered outcomes, and provide a networking opportunity for those in the quality of life research field. ISOQOL provides scientific publications, international conferences, educational short-courses and online webinars, all available in their Resource Center.  ISOQOL sponsors two journals, Quality of Life Research, devoted to the field of quality of life in the health sciences, and The Journal of Patient-Reported Outcomes (JPRO), an international, multi-disciplinary open access journal.

Society for Benefit-Cost Analysis (SBCA). SBCA works to improve the theory and practice of benefit-cost analysis, and to support evidence-based policy decisions. Substantive areas include public health, transportation, criminal justice, education, energy, environmental quality, homeland security, and poverty. The society holds an annual conference and publishes the Journal of Benefit-Cost Analysis, with some open-access content. The SBCA website provides public access to news, events, career listings and links to BCA-related databases. Additional member only benefits include full digital access to the journal.

Society for Judgment and Decision-Making. The Society for Judgment and Decision Making is an interdisciplinary academic organization dedicated to the study of normative, descriptive, and prescriptive theories of judgments and decisions. Its members include psychologists, economists, organizational researchers, decision analysts, and other decision researchers. They hold an annual meeting and provide online resources such as publications, teaching resources, course syllabi, blogs and PhD programs. Their journal, Judgment and Decision Making is an open access online journal composed of short articles, meta-analyses, empirical contributions, and theoretical articles.

Society for Medical Decision Making (SMDM). SMDM is an organization working to improve health and clinical care of individuals and populations through advancement of systematic methods to address decision-making, and provide training for scholars in the field. SMDM holds annual meetings, publishes two journals (Medical Decision Making and open access Medical Decision Making Policy & Practice), and maintains a website with member access to networking opportunities, education & career tools. SMDM offers short courses in topics such as cost-effectiveness analysis, shared decision making, decision-analytic modeling, and psychology of medical decision making meetings in North America, Europe and Asia.

Society for Risk Analysis (SRA). SRA provides an open forum for those interested in risk analysis, including risk assessment, risk characterization, risk communication, risk management, and policy relating to risk. Foci include risks to human health and the environment, both built and natural, and threats from physical, chemical, and biological agents. Risk Analysis, SRA’s official journal, publishes research on developments in the theory and practice of risk analysis from a wide range of disciplines. SRA provides links to meetings, career opportunity postings, a speakers bureau, a glossary of risk-related terminology, a list of risk related journals, and members only materials such as a webinar series, and teaching resources (e.g., syllabi, notes and reading lists).

Decision Analysis. This journal is published quarterly and publishes research articles dedicated to advancing the theory, application, and teaching of all aspects of decision analysis. Its primary focus is on operational decision-making methods.

Expert Review of Pharmacoeconomics & Outcomes Research. This journal provides expert reviews on cost-benefit and pharmacoeconomic issues relating to the clinical use of drugs and therapeutic approaches, including outcomes and quality-of-life research.

International Journal of Technology Assessment in Health Care (IJTAHC). This journal is published quarterly by HTAi and includes research reports, technology assessment and thematic sections on the economic, social, ethical, medical and public health implications of health technology.

Journal of Behavioral Decision Making. This journal publishes original empirical reports, critical review papers, theoretical analyses that develop significant psychological theory of fundamental decision processes or report and interpret previously unknown phenomena.

Journal of Benefit-Cost Analysis (JBCA). This journal publishes theory, empirical analyses, and applications of benefit-cost analysis, addressing programs in education, crime, health, poverty, labor and housing, environment, transportation and security.

The Journal of Patient-Reported Outcomes. The journal is an open access journal publishing original research, reviews, briefs and editorials, in the field of patient-reported outcomes (PROs), including in clinical trials, in clinical practice, and clinical guidelines development.

The Journal of Risk and Uncertainty. The journal publishes both theoretical and empirical research that analyze risk-bearing behavior and decision-making under uncertainty, including decision theory, economics of uncertainty and risk and public policy.

Judgment and Decision Making. This journal publishes research dealing with normative, descriptive, and/or prescriptive analyses of human judgments and decisions relevant to medicine, law, consumer behavior, business, public choice, and public economics.

Management Science. This journal publishes organizational, managerial, and individual decision making research, from both normative and descriptive perspectives. Articles are primarily based on the foundational disciplines of economics, mathematics, psychology, sociology, and statistics.

MDM Policy & Practice. This open access sister journal to MDM focuses on the application of current theories, methods, and approaches to important problems facing clinical and health policy decision makers, including patients, providers, producers, and payers.

Medical Decision Making (MDM). This journal publishes methods and applications of decision analysis, including theoretical, statistical, and modeling techniques, decision psychology, health economics, clinical epidemiology, and evidence synthesis.

Operations Research. This journal publishes methodologies and applications in operations research, including innovative conceptualizations and mathematical formulations of problems, and the development of new methodologies to attack known and new problems.

PharmacoEconomics. This journal publishes original research and educational material for the healthcare decision maker, focusing on practical articles on the application of pharmacoeconomics and quality-of-life assessment to optimum drug therapy and health outcomes.

Quality of Life Research. This journal publishes original research, theoretical articles, methodological reports editorials, literature, book and software reviews, correspondence and abstracts of conferences related to the field of quality of life in all the health sciences.

Risk Analysis. This journal publishes research in risk analysis, spanning health and safety risks, microbial risks, engineering, modeling, risk communication, management and perception, decision making, ethics, laws and regulatory policy, and ecological risks.

Risk and Decision Analysis. This journal publishes research papers on risks and uncertainties, modeling (mathematical or otherwise), empirical and data analysis, and management, focusing on probability theory, data science, Bayesian statistics, and stochastic modeling.

Value in Health. This journal publishes pharmacoeconomics, health economics, and outcomes research, and conceptual and health policy articles targeting health care decision-makers and researchers.

Harvard University T32 HIV Research Training Program. The goal of the T32 HIV Research training program is to train MD and PhD investigators for careers in HIV research.  Pre- and post-doctoral positions are available annually. Potential areas of investigation include all areas of HIV/AIDS research, ranging from the laboratory to the clinic.  Funding is generally available for two years. Most relevant for trainees in decision science is the Harvard T32 grant concentrating on clinical epidemiology and outcomes research (P.I. Kenneth Freedberg).  The grant covers salary or stipend, travel to professional meetings, and other training-related expenses, and tuition for the Program in Clinical Effectiveness at Harvard School of Public Health or PhD coursework for selected fellows. Applicants must be nominated by a mentor who is an independently funded investigator.

Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and DFCI Prevention Fellowship. This joint program between the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the Dana Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI) draws on the teaching, scientific research, and field activities of Harvard Chan, the clinical resources of the DFCI, and the shared laboratory and scientific facilities of both institutions to form the basis for a comprehensive education program in cancer prevention and control. The National Cancer Institute funds this program.  To be eligible, applicants must be a U.S. Citizen or permanent resident. The program will accommodate one physician pursuing a degree, three post-doctoral researchers, and six pre-doctoral positions. The training focuses on three core components: (1) specialized curriculum, (2) other didactic experiences tailored to fellow’s needs and interests, and (3) research experiences.

Harvard T32 Clinical Orthopedic and Musculoskeletal Training (COMET) Program. This program is housed at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School and Harvard School of Public Health. The program is intended to train highly qualified pre and postdoctoral trainees in rigorous clinical research methodology to address pressing problems relating to orthopedic and musculoskeletal disorders. Pre- and post-doctoral positions are available annually. The range of methodologies suitable for support is wide, ranging from epidemiology, biostatistics, economics, pharmacoepidemiology, biomechanics, policy modeling, behavioral research and much in between. The training grant covers salary or stipend, travel to professional meetings, and other training-related expenses. The predoctoral award includes a tuition stipend for PhD candidates. Applicants must be nominated by a mentor who is an independently funded investigator.

Center for Outcomes & Policy Research. The Center for Outcomes and Policy Research (COPR) at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute aims to enhance the experiences and outcomes of patients through rigorous research on health outcomes and policy. Investigators assess the clinical efficacy, effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of interventions to prevent and treat cancer.

Center for Evaluation of Value and Risk in Health (CEVR). CEVR is a member of the Institute for Clinical Research and Health Policy Studies at Tufts Medical Center, Boston. The mission of CEVR is to analyze the benefits, risks, and costs of strategies to improve health and health care and to communicate the findings to clinicians and policymakers.

Decision Systems Group. The Decision Systems Group (DSG) at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital conducts research in computer-based decision support, information retrieval, clinical information systems, image-based reasoning, bioinformatics, and machine learning applications, including the development of algorithms, software environments, and computer-based tools.

Harvard Center for Risk Analysis. The Harvard Center for Risk Analysis (HCRA) at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health conducts state-of-the-art research, educates the next generation of leaders in risk analysis, and encourages public discourse about risk topics to improve decisions about environmental health and other risks.

Harvard Decision Science Laboratory. The Harvard Decision Science Laboratory at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government is an advanced research facility that creates and supports a community of scholars working in the many intersecting areas of Decision Science.  They provide a critical resource to researchers from across Harvard University.

Health Decision Sciences Center. The Health Decision Sciences Center (HDSC) at the Massachusetts General Hospital is committed to improving the quality of decisions made by patients and health care providers. Research focuses on developing, implementing, and evaluating decision aids and decision quality measures to support shared decision-making in medical encounters.

Department of Health Care Policy. DHCP at the Harvard Medical School is an academic department within the medical school specializing in health policy. Research includes broad topics on financing and delivery of health care, quality of care, studies on special and disadvantaged populations and access to care and methods contributions in statistics and biostatistics.

Institute for Quantitative Social Science. The Institute for Quantitative Social Science (IQSS) at the Harvard Faculty of Arts & Sciences builds cutting edge social science infrastructure to foster a flourishing community of social scientists.  They have established large-scale Harvard-wide partnerships to develop expertise and products such as the Harvard Dataverse and the Applied Statistics Workshop series.

Institute for Technology Assessment. The Institute for Technology Assessment (ITA) at the Massachusetts General Hospital conducts research to guide the development, evaluation and utilization of technologies that improve the quality and cost-effectiveness of medical care. Areas of focus include decision analysis, economic evaluation, and health-related quality of life.

Moral Psychology Research Lab. The Moral Psychology Research Lab at the Harvard Faculty of Arts & Sciences investigates how people learn and make decisions in social contexts, particularly focusing on moral judgment and decision making.  They use methods that include surveys, economic games, functional neuroimaging, and computational modeling.

Prevention Policy Modeling Lab. The Prevention Policy Modeling Lab at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health models the health impact, costs and cost-effectiveness of infectious disease treatment & prevention programs in the U.S., incorporating evidence-based prevention strategies, emphasizing cross-cutting initiatives, and producing results that can be operationalized within healthcare and other sectors.