The objective of this advanced graduate course is to prepare highly motivated students to perform cutting
edge applications of comparative effectiveness and cost-effectiveness methods to the study of medical and
public health interventions. Lectures will review classic theoretical and empirical papers in both program
evaluation and cost-effectiveness analysis with a major focus on the application of advanced methods to
practical problems in medical care and public health. Topics to be covered will include: the science of
evaluation definition, identification and estimation, observational data methods, Bayesian methods for metaanalysis,
simulation modeling with probabilistic sensitivity analysis and cost-effectiveness acceptability curves,
and value of research methods. A central theme for the course will involve understanding heterogeneity in
outcomes, its appropriate representation in methods and interpretation of results and will cut across all the methods covered in the course.
