Researchers
James G Kahn - University of California-San Francisco
David Paltiel - Yale University
Greg Zaric
Margaret L. Brandeau (Co-Principal Investigator) - Stanford University
Gillian D. Sanders - Stanford University
Vandana Sundaram - Stanford University
Douglas K. Owens (Principal Investigator) - Stanford University

This research is motivated by a recent report by the Institute of Medicine's Committee on HIV Prevention Strategy in the United States, which advocates the use of evaluation and cost-effectiveness frameworks to help guide decisions on how to allocate resources for HIV prevention and treatment. The project aims to promote reasoned policy making in the realm of AIDS and drug abuse prevention via the development of mathematical and economic models. To achieve this goal, the project has the following specific aims:

• to construct "production functions" that characterize the relationship between money spent to modify risky behaviors and empirically observed changes in those behaviors;
• to develop model-based methods of translating the behavioral impact of HIV-related interventions into epidemiologically meaningful outcome measures;
• to assign appropriate outcome measures such as economic cost, public health impact, and cost-effectiveness to models of HIV intervention programs;
• to assess the impact and cost-effectiveness of particular interventions aimed at slowing the spread of HIV and drug abuse, including harm reduction, needle exchange, drug abuse treatment, programs aimed at reducing the prevalence and incidence of sexually transmitted diseases, and HIV counseling, testing and referral;
• to guide prevention strategy and the allocation of societal resources by examining the impact and cost-effectiveness of portfolios of interventions. This includes assessing the appropriateness of epidemiologically targeted versus blanketed HIV prevention programs, as well as analyzing other national and international HIV prevention strategies; and
• to examine the relationship between policy modeling and public-health decision making in the areas of AIDS and substance abuse.

Contact
Douglas Owens

Funding provided by
• National Institutes of Health/National Institute on Drug Abuse