In the Section on Value and Effectiveness, part of NYU Langone’s Division of Comparative Effectiveness and Decision Science, we conduct a wide range of cost-effectiveness research and consult with health departments, ministries of health, and managed care organizations. We approach our evaluations by identifying the intervention or strategy that makes the greatest impact to improve health.

Our work includes advising city and state governments on cost-effective strategies for the prevention of HIV infections, evaluating anti–drug overdose interventions, assessing strategies to promote adherence to hepatitis C drug regimens, and assisting a national managed care company in targeting longevity-increasing interventions for members.

What distinguishes us from other modeling groups is that we make our recommendations explicit, based on high-level evidence, and we are deliberately agnostic. For example, if a government entity asks us to evaluate how to reduce traffic deaths, we do not suggest a preference for guardrails or for lowering the speed limit.

Value and Effectiveness Research Projects

Some examples of our current work are listed below.

Development and Evaluation of Patient-Reported Outcome Score Visualization to Improve Their Utilization

The Development and Evaluation of Patient-Reported Outcome Score Visualization to Improve Their Utilization study, also called PROVIZ, is developing and testing visual presentations of patient reported outcome (PRO) scores for electronic health records. Our goal is to facilitate the usability and understanding of PRO scores by patients and to improve clinical decision making. We use engineering and human–computer interaction principles to inform optimal data visualization and presentation. We plan to formally evaluate our data visualizations, using qualitative and quantitative methods, to determine the usefulness, acceptability, and interpretability of PRO scores by clinicians and patients. This project is an exciting collaboration with NYU Tandon School of Engineering and builds on 10 years of experience collecting PRO scores in the ambulatory setting.

The Project Active Study

Do people make more healthful decisions when they receive personalized, precise information that predicts their future health, such as information based on family history, risk for disease, or identification of unhealthy behaviors? Are people happier when they are informed whether their decisions are unhealthy, or would they prefer not to know?

Project Active is designed to answer these questions by providing participants with personalized and precise health information from a scientifically validated mathematical model. We offer health coaching at NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue, serving a diverse population that often has other, more urgent priorities that compete with their ability to focus on their future health.

In our program, we check in with participants regularly to help them understand how their choices impact their health. We graph how they report spending their time, so they can visualize it more easily. This helps motivate participants to take responsibility for their health, including keeping their blood pressure in control, exercising, and eating more healthfully.

TORCH Individual Health Estimator

Our section has developed The Operations Research Collaboration for Health Care (TORCH) Individual Health Estimator, which answers questions about the impact of health behaviors on disease risk and calculates the biological age that most closely matches a person’s current level of health. For example, TORCH can estimate the effect of smoking or controlling diabetes on longevity, or how reducing high cholesterol impacts risk of a fatal stroke. It can also calculate the benefit of routine screenings to improve health.

The tool is powered by a microsimulation model built by our modeling group, which includes the 19 top causes of mortality and 27 risk factors associated with their onset.

Visit the TORCH Individual Health Estimator to model and evaluate your own health. For more information or to provide feedback, email us at TORCH@nyulangone.org or call 646-501-2555.