Giving Health Care Policy a Dose of Mathematics

Imelda Flores Vazquez from Econometrica, Inc. explains how
economists use mathematics to evaluate the efficacy of health care
policies. When a hospital or government wants to adjust their
health policies — for instance, by encouraging more frequent
screenings for certain diseases — how do they know whether their
program will work or not? If the service has already been
implemented elsewhere, researchers can use that data to estimate
its effects. But if the idea is brand-new, or has only been used in
very different settings, then it's harder to predict how well the
new program will work. Luckily, a tool called a microsimulation can
help researchers make an educated guess.