OR Modeling and AIDS Policy: From Theory to Practice

James G. Kahn, Margaret L. Brandeau and John Dunn-Mortimer
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James G. Kahn: Center for AIDS Prevention Studies, Institute for Health Policy Studies, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California 94143
Margaret L. Brandeau: Department of Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305
John Dunn-Mortimer: Consultant on Health Care Systems and Government Affairs, 715 Laurel Avenue, #201, San Mateo, California 94401

Interfaces, 1998, vol. 28, issue 3, 3-22

Abstract: The AIDS epidemic is a serious, growing public health problem worldwide, but resources for treating HIV-infected patients and for combating the spread of the virus are limited. Governments, public-health agencies, and health-care providers must determine how best to allocate scarce resources for HIV treatment and prevention among different programs and populations. OR-based models have influenced—and can influence—AIDS policy decisions. Mathematical modeling has had an effect on AIDS policy in a number of areas, including estimating HIV prevalence and incidence in the United States, understanding the pathophysiology of HIV, evaluating costs and benefits of HIV-screening programs, evaluating the effects of needle-exchange programs, and determining policies for HIV/AIDS care in California. Further work is needed to model a range of programs using comparable methods, to model overall epidemic control strategy, and to improve the usefulness of OR-based models for policy making.

Keywords: health care; epidemiology; government; public policy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1998
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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