Course Syllabus

Jump to Today

Description

This course introduces the concepts and methods for economic evaluation in low and middle-income countries with a focus on cost-effectiveness analyses. Topics covered include measuring costs, valuing health outcomes in disability-adjusted life years (DALYs), discounting, and utilizing models to conduct economic evaluation and evaluate uncertainty.

Instructor

Monisha Sharma
Assistant Professor, Global Health

Dr. Monisha Sharma is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Global Health. She received her Masters in infectious disease epidemiology from Johns Hopkins University and her PhD in epidemiology from the University of Washington. Her research interests include mathematical modeling and cost-effectiveness analyses of HIV testing and linkage to care interventions in sub-Saharan Africa. She is the principal investigator of a K01 award to design an intervention into increase men’s uptake of HIV self-testing and clinic linkage in Uganda. During her joint postdoctoral fellowship with UW and the Harvard School of Public Health, she worked to develop a mathematical model of HIV/HPV co-infection to project the cost-effectiveness of cervical cancer prevention strategies in South Africa. She is currently working on a scale up project of Assisted Partner Notification services in Kenya and collaborates with the Institute for Disease Modeling to project the impact of scaling up point-of-care viral load monitoring for patients on ART in sub-Saharan Africa.

Teaching Assistant

Dewa Shrestha Greenleaf is a Student Support Specialist in the Department of Global Health e-Learning at the University of Washington. Born in Kathmandu, Nepal, Dewa immigrated to the US as a child. She completed her Master’s degree in Health Promotion at the University of Iowa. Her graduate work focused on understanding how researchers examine health issues in immigrant and refugee populations. She also worked on a longitudinal study to examine the impact of physical activity on the bone development of children.

Learning Objectives

After completing this course, you will be able to:

  • Understand the rationale and methods for conducting economic evaluations of global health interventions;
  • Critically evaluate published papers in the field of global health economic evaluation;
  • Identify sources for model parameters including costs and epidemiologic data;
  • Understand the theoretical rationale for disability adjusted life years (DALYs) and willingness-to-pay thresholds;
  • Participate in the design and conduct of health economic evaluations in collaboration with health economists or mathematical modelers.

Format

This is a self-paced, online, modular course divided into 10 weeks. Learning activities include:

  • Watching lecture videos
  • Participating in discussion forums
  • Doing assignments
  • Completing readings
  • Taking weekly quizzes

If you have any questions, please look at the course FAQ . If you question isn't answered there, please post your questions in the classroom cafe discussion board .

Expectations

To be successful in the course you will need to complete all of the learning activities listed above.

To receive a Certificate of Completion from the University of Washington, USA, you must pass the course, which means getting a final score of 70% or higher on all graded activities. Your final score is calculated as:

  • Discussion forums (10%): Participation is worth 1-2 points each for the 5 discussion forums (for a total of 10 points).
  • Quizzes (20%): You will have 2 attempts on each weekly quiz. Your score will be averaged across the 10 quizzes.
  • Assignments (40%) Throughout the course you will complete short a series of short assignments aimed to help you apply the concepts taught in each module. The short module assignments will account for 40 points or 40% of your final grade.
  • Final Project (30%) Each week in the course you will respond to non-graded questions meant to help you develop a final project. You will use these weekly writing prompts to build your final project and submit it during the last week of the course. The final project is intended to be an application of the information presented in the prior 10-weeks of the course. You will be asked to incorporate key concepts from throughout the course into your project.

Late Work Policy

Be sure to pay close attention to deadlines—there will be no make up assignments or quizzes, or late work accepted without a serious and compelling reason and instructor approval.

Commitment to Academic Integrity

As a participant in this course you are expected to maintain high degrees of professionalism, commitment to active learning and participation.

University of Washington's Academic Honesty Policy & Procedures

Plagiarism, cheating, and other misconduct are serious violations of your contract as a student. We expect that you will know and follow the UW's policies on cheating and plagiarism. Any suspected cases of academic misconduct will be handled according to UW regulations. 

Definitions

“Plagiarism is defined as the use of the words, ideas, diagrams, etc., of publicly available work without appropriately acknowledging the sources of these materials. This definition constitutes plagiarism whether it is intentional or unintentional and whether it is the work of another or your own, previously published work. Plagiarism is a very serious offense that the University of Washington does not tolerate.”

Enforcement

Corroborated reports of plagiarism, cheating, or other misconduct will result in no credit on that assignment and may result in suspension from the course and ban from participation in future courses.

Copyright Statement

All content associated with this course is copyrighted. This includes the syllabus, assignments, reading lists, and lectures, as well as any material generated by your fellow students. Within the constraints of "fair use", you may copy these materials for your personal use in support of your education. For example, you may download materials to your computer for study, but you may not copy the materials and distribute or upload to a website. Such “fair use” by you does not include further distribution by any means of copying, performance or presentation beyond the circle of your close acquaintances, student colleagues in this class and your family. If you have any questions regarding any use violates the creator's copyright interests, please feel free to email edgh@uw.edu.

UW Disability Statement

The Disability Services Office aims to help make the UW community more accessible for all. If you are seeking accommodation for a permanent or temporary disability, contact eDGH@uw.edu for more information and assistance.

Diversity Statement

Diverse backgrounds, embodiments, and experiences are essential to the critical thinking endeavor at the heart of a successful and effective learning experience. Therefore, all participants are expected to respect the many social and cultural differences among us, which may include, but are not limited to: age, cultural background, disability, ethnicity, family status, gender identity and presentation, citizenship and immigration status, national origin, race, religious and political beliefs, sex, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, and veteran status. Please speak with course TA or instructors right away if you experience disrespect in this class. We appreciate the many diverse and valuable experiences and insights that all participants bring to this course.

Religious Accommodations

“Washington state law requires that UW develop a policy for accommodation of student absences or significant hardship due to reasons of faith or conscience, or for organized religious activities. The UW’s policy, including more information about how to request an accommodation, is available at Religious Accommodations Policy. 

Schedule

Course Summary:

Date Details Due