Preparing for Your Capstone
Prerequisites
Technical Requirements
- A computer with AMUA installed
- Instructions to Install: Link
- Basic training is not required but here is some information if you want to get familiar or refresh your memory with the software
Disease Understanding
- An understanding of your disease or disorder
- How does it progress?
- How long does the disease take to progress?
- What does a standard of care treatment look like?
- How do treatments change this standard of care?
- How long does treatment take?
- What are common side effects (short or long term)?
- Not required but an attempted Bubble Diagram would be good
Data Requirements
Note: The more data you are able to bring, the further you will get in the model. However, data collection will be part of the teaching so if data can’t be brought, we can help figure out values with you.
Not all below will apply to your model but review them all to see what you have, what you can get, and what you will need help with.
Model Parameters
- What is a good cycle time length? (most models use annual)
- How long should the model run? (most run lifetime)
- Who is the population impacted by this disease?
- Is there underlying features of this population that could lead to a change in disease probabilities?
Probability Data
- What is the likelihood (rate, probability, hazard ratio, etc.) for each part of the model?
- Getting disease or disorder
- Getting a Screening test
- Sensitivity/Specificity of tests
- Getting a Vaccination
- Getting a treatment
- Getting and/or treating a Side effect
- Medication/treatment compliance
- Behavior change
- Success of treatment/transplant
- Needing a secondary treatment/transplant
- Disease/disorder progression
- Death from disease/disorder
- Do any of the above change over time?
- How do these change between strategies?
Cost Data
- How much does treatment of the disease cost?
- Medication(s)
- Treatment(s)
- Operation(s)
- Screening(s)
- Vaccination(s)
- Doctor Appointments/Surveillance
- Treatment of Side effects
- Implementation cost(s)
- Staff Training
- Do any of the above change over time?
- How do these change between strategies?
Utility Data
- How does the disease and treatment impact quality of life?
- Note: this can be utility or a decrement to utility
- Medication side effects
- Medication benefits
- Operation/treatment recovery
- Disease stages/progression
- Disease side effects
- Do any of the above change over time?
- How do these change between strategies?