Search results

This report is a summary of the January 2010 workshop, Improving Health Care Cost Projections for the Medicare Population. The workshop was convened by the Committee on National Statistics (CNSTAT) of the Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education (DBASSE) of the National Research Council (NRC). The workshop was to consider major classes of projection and simulation models that are currently in use and the underlying data sources and research inputs for these models. It was also to consider areas in which additional research and data are needed to inform model development and health care policy analysis more broadly, such as: the relative merits of various cost projection approaches with regard to short-term versus long-term projections, the ability to model what-if scenarios, and other features for the major modeling categories; trends in socioeconomic status and in mortality and morbidity and how they affect health care cost projections; medical technology as a driver of costs and the policy responses to this trend; factors affecting health status, such as obesity, disability, and chronic diseases, that may affect costs over the longer term; addressing uncertainty and bias in model projections

"The Children's Health Act mandated the National Children's Study (NCS) in 2000 with one of its purposes being to authorize the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) to study the environmental influences (including physical, chemical, biological, and psychosocial) on children's health and development. The NCS examines all aspects of the environment including air, water, diet, noise, family dynamics, and genetics, on the growth, development, and health of children across the United States, for a period of 21 years. The purpose of NCS is to improve the health and well-being of children and to contribute to understanding the role of these factors on health and disease. The research plan for the NCS was developed from 2005 to 2007 in collaboration among the Interagency Coordinating Committee, the NCS Advisory Committee, the NCS Program Office, Westat, the Vanguard Center principal investigators, and federal scientists. The current design of the study, however, uses a separate pilot to assess quality of scientific output, logistics, and operations and a "Main Study" to examine exposure-outcome relationships. The NCS proposed the use of a multilayered cohort approach for the Main Study, which was one of the topics for discussion at the workshop that is the subject of this publication. In the fall of 2012, NICHD requested that the Committee on National Statistics (CNSTAT) of the NRC and the IOM convene a joint workshop, to be led by CNSTAT. The workshop was to focus on issues related to the overall design (including the framework for implementation) of the NCS. The committee was provided a background paper which it used to select the challenges that were discussed at the workshop. Design of the National Children's Study: A Workshop Summary presents an overview of the workshop held on January 11, 2013. The publication includes summaries of the four sessions of the workshop, a list of participants, and the agenda"--Publisher's description.

Contents -- Workshop on the Future of Meta-Analysis -- Committee on National Statistics -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction - Kenneth W. Wachter and Miron L. Straf -- I. Prospects -- 1. History and Goals - Ingram Olkin -- 2. Directions for Future Methodology - Larry V. Hedges -- II. Case Study: The Effects of Rehabilitation Therapy for Aphasia -- 3. The Making of a Meta-Analysis: A Quantitative Review of the Aphasia Treatment Literature - Joel B. Greenhouse / Davida Fromm / Satish Iyengar / Mary Amanda Dew / Audrey L. Holland / Robert E. Kass

FrontMatter -- Acknowledgments -- Contents -- List of Figures -- List of Tables -- List of Boxes -- Part I: Final Report -- Summary -- 1 Introduction -- 2 Planning the 2020 Census: Cost and Quality -- 3 Census Bureau Research, Past and Present -- 4 Revitalizing Census Research and Development -- Appendix A: Past Census Research Programs -- Appendix B: 2010 Census Program of Evaluations and Experiments -- Part II: Interim Report: Experimentation and Evaluation in the 2010 Census (December 7, 2007) -- Executive Summary -- 1 Introduction -- 2 Initial Views on 2010 Census Experiments -- 3 Initial Views on 2010 Census Evaluations -- 4 Considerations for the 2010 Census -- Appendix A: The Census Bureau's Suggested Topics for Research -- Appendix B: Internet Response Options in Selected Population Censuses -- Part III: Letter Report (February 19, 2009) -- Letter Report -- References -- Biographical Sketches of Panel Members and Staff -- Committee on National Statistics.

A high percentage of defense systems fail to meet their reliability requirements. This is a serious problem for the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD), as well as the nation. Those systems are not only less likely to successfully carry out their intended missions, but they also could endanger the lives of the operators. Furthermore, reliability failures discovered after deployment can result in costly and strategic delays and the need for expensive redesign, which often limits the tactical situations in which the system can be used. Finally, systems that fail to meet their reliability requirements are much more likely to need additional scheduled and unscheduled maintenance and to need more spare parts and possibly replacement systems, all of which can substantially increase the life-cycle costs of a system. Beginning in 2008, DOD undertook a concerted effort to raise the priority of reliability through greater use of design for reliability techniques, reliability growth testing, and formal reliability growth modeling, by both the contractors and DOD units. To this end, handbooks, guidances, and formal memoranda were revised or newly issued to reduce the frequency of reliability deficiencies for defense systems in operational testing and the effects of those deficiencies. Reliability Growth evaluates these recent changes and, more generally, assesses how current DOD principles and practices could be modified to increase the likelihood that defense systems will satisfy their reliability requirements. This report examines changes to the reliability requirements for proposed systems; defines modern design and testing for reliability; discusses the contractor's role in reliability testing; and summarizes the current state of formal reliability growth modeling. The recommendations of Reliability Growth will improve the reliability of defense systems and protect the health of the valuable personnel who operate them

"The National Children's Study (NCS) was authorized by the Children's Health Act of 2000 and is being implemented by a dedicated Program Office in the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD). The NCS is planned to be a longitudinal observational birth cohort study to evaluate the effects of chronic and intermittent exposures on child health and development in the U.S.. The NCS would be the first study to collect a broad range of environmental exposure measures for a national probability sample of about 100,000 children, followed from birth or before birth to age 21. Detailed plans for the NCS were developed by 2007 and reviewed by a National Research Council / Institute of Medicine panel. At that time, sample recruitment for the NCS Main Study was scheduled to begin in 2009 and to be completed within about 5 years. However, results from the initial seven pilot locations, which recruited sample cases in 2009-2010, indicated that the proposed household-based recruitment approach would be more costly and time consuming than planned. In response, the Program Office implemented a number of pilot tests in 2011 to evaluate alternative recruitment methods and pilot testing continues to date. At the request of Congress, The National Children's Study 2014 reviews the revised study design and proposed methodologies for the NCS Main Study. This report assesses the study's plan to determine whether it is likely to produce scientifically sound results that are generalizable to the United States population and appropriate subpopulations. The report makes recommendations about the overall study framework, sample design, timing, content and need for scientific expertise and oversight. The National Children's Study has the potential to add immeasurably to scientific knowledge about the impact of environmental exposures, broadly defined, on children's health and development in the United States. The recommendations of this report will help the NCS will achieve its intended objective to examine the effects of environmental influences on the health and development of American children"--Publisher's description

"National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES) of the National Science Foundation is responsible for national reporting of the research and development (R&D) activities that occur in all sectors of the United States economy. For most sectors, including the business and higher education sectors, NCSES collects data on these activities on a regular basis. However, data on R&D within the nonprofit sector have not been collected in 18 years, a time period which has seen dynamic and rapid growth of the sector. NCSES decided to design and implement a new survey of nonprofits, and commissioned this workshop to provide a forum to discuss conceptual and design issues and methods. Measuring Research and Development Expenditures in the U.S. Nonprofit Sector: Conceptual and Design Issues summarizes the presentations and discussion of the workshop. This report identifies concepts and issues for the design of a survey of R&D expenditures made by nonprofit organizations, considering the goals, content, statistical methodology, data quality, and data products associated with this data collection. The report also considers the broader usefulness of the data for understanding the nature of the nonprofit sector and their R&D activities. Measuring Research and Development Expenditures in the U. S. Nonprofit Sector will help readers understand the role of nonprofit sector given its enormous size and scope as well as its contribution to identifying new forms of R&D beyond production processes and new technology."--Publisher's description

Front Matter -- Contents -- Preface -- Acronyms and Abbreviations -- Executive Summary -- 1 Introduction -- 2 The Government Statistics Program in Context -- 3 Data Users and Uses -- 4 Data Quality and Statistical Methods -- 5 Dissemination and Analysis -- 6 Challenges for the Future -- References -- Appendixes -- Appendix A Governments Division Census and Surveys -- Appendix B Reimbursable Programs -- Appendix C Letters on the Taxable Property Value Survey -- Appendix D Summary of Presentations of Public Interest and Other User Groups -- Appendix E Meeting and Workshop Agendas -- Appendix F Biographical Sketches of Panel Members and Staff -- COMMITTEE ON NATIONAL STATISTICS.