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 EvaluationsIHME is conducting evaluations of the impact of programs and interventions and developing new, improved methods for this purpose. We also plan to evaluate the performance of national health systems for countries with sufficient data. We have two streams of evaluations work—one that focuses on methods development and another that conducts evaluation studies. The Evaluations team works very closely with the Effective Coverage team to measure the coverage of specific interventions, the quality of those interventions, and the impact they have had. Undertaking scientific research on new and innovate healthcare delivery models and subjecting all existing and new health programs to rigorous monitoring and evaluation is essential for building the evidence-base for successful healthcare delivery and health system strengthening. Proven interventions can lead to improvements in population health only if they reach those who need them. Donors and governments are spending development dollars on programs for delivering health services not knowing which programs are effective. IHME is working to expand the evidence base about what works and what does not by conducting impact evaluations and refining the methods needed to produce the best available data. A primary focus in the Evaluations area is on developing new and improved methods to evaluate the impact of a program or intervention based on empirical evidence. There are a number of statistical methods available for evaluating interventions using observational data. By reviewing and testing each method using replications and simulations, IHME’s researchers are determining the benefits and weaknesses of each, in order to ascertain which methods are best applied to which specific situations. IHME is striving to develop our findings in a way that operates as an easy-to-understand toolkit for researchers in the evaluation field. Together, we can increase the quality of information we provide to decision-makers who want to understand the impact of a program, or design a future program with maximum likelihood of positive impact. Another important component of the Evaluations team is conducting impact evaluation in order to determine what effect, if any, a health program had on a target population. Impact evaluation estimates the effect of the program by creating a suitable comparison or control group that is similar to those receiving the program in every way except for access to the program. Indicators used to track program performance can be classified into measures of inputs, such as financial resources for a program; processes, such as activities initiated in order to deliver the program; outputs, such as the fraction of the target population eligible to receive a particular intervention through the program that actually received the intervention; and outcomes, such as the health of the target population. Analyzing the relationship between initial inputs and eventual outputs and/or outcomes helps answer the primary question of whether the program had an impact, and if so, the size of that impact.
IHME has pledged to undertake one to two impact evaluations every year. While proposed evaluation ideas can come from external organization or from within the Institute, the Board is responsible for making the final decision about which evaluations that IHME will undertake. For more information, please contact: evaluations@healthmetricsandevaluation.org |
