scholarly journals Construction of a demand and capacity model for intensive care and hospital ward beds, and mortality from COVID-19

Author(s):  
Stuart McDonald ◽  
Chris Martin ◽  
Steve Bale ◽  
Michiel Luteijn ◽  
Rahul Sarkar

AbstractBackgroundThis paper describes the construction of a model used to estimate the number of excess deaths that could be expected as a direct consequence of a lack of hospital bed and intensive care unit (ICU) capacity.MethodsA series of compartmental models was used to estimate the number of deaths under different combinations of care required (ICU or ward), and care received (ICU, ward or no care) in England up to the end of April 2021. Model parameters were sourced from publicly available government information, organisations collating COVID-19 data and calculations using existing parameters. A compartmental sub-model was used to estimate the mortality scalars that represent the increase in mortality that would be expected from a lack of provision of an ICU or general ward bed when one is required. Three illustrative scenarios for admissions numbers, ‘Optimistic’, ‘Middling’ and ‘Pessimistic’, are described showing how the model can be used to estimate mortality rates under different scenarios of capacity.ResultsThe key output of our collaboration was the model itself rather than the results of any of the scenarios. The model allows a user to understand the excess mortality impact arising as a direct consequence of capacity being breached under various scenarios or forecasts of hospital admissions. The scenarios described in this paper are illustrative and are not forecasts.There were no excess deaths from a lack of capacity in any of the ‘Optimistic’ scenario applications in sensitivity analysis.Several of the ‘Middling’ scenario applications under sensitivity testing resulted in excess deaths directly attributable to a lack of capacity. Most excess deaths arose when we modelled a 20% reduction compared to best estimate ICU capacity. This led to 597 deaths (0.7% increase).All the ‘Pessimistic’ scenario applications under sensitivity analysis had excess deaths. These ranged from 49,219 (19.4% increase) when we modelled a 20% increase in ward bed availability over the best-estimate, to 103,845 (40.9% increase) when we modelled a 20% shortfall in ward bed availability below the best-estimate. The emergence of a new, more transmissible variant (VOC 202012/01) increases the likelihood of real world outcomes at, or beyond, those modelled in our ‘Pessimistic’ scenario.The results can be explained by considering how capacity evolves in each of the scenarios. In the Middling scenario, whilst ICU capacity may be approached and even possibly breached, there remains sufficient ward capacity to take lives who need either ward or ICU support, keeping excess deaths relatively low. However, the Pessimistic scenario sees ward capacity breached, and in many scenarios for a period of several weeks, resulting in much higher mortality in those lives who require care but do not receive it.ConclusionsNo excess deaths from breaching capacity would be expected under the unadjusted ‘Optimistic’ assumptions of demand. The ‘Middling’ scenario could result in some excess deaths from breaching capacity, though these would be small (0.7% increase) relative to the total number of deaths in that scenario. The ‘Pessimistic’ scenario would certainly result in significant excess deaths from breaching capacity. Our sensitivity analysis indicated a range between 49,219 (19.4% increase) and 103,845 (40.9% increase) excess deaths.Without the new variant, exceeding capacity for hospital and ICU beds did not appear to be the most likely outcome but given the new variant it now appears more plausible and, if so, would result in a substantial increase in the number of deaths from COVID-19.

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Martin ◽  
Stuart McDonald ◽  
Steve Bale ◽  
Michiel Luteijn ◽  
Rahul Sarkar

Abstract Background This paper describes a model for estimating COVID-19 related excess deaths that are a direct consequence of insufficient hospital ward bed and intensive care unit (ICU) capacity. Methods Compartmental models were used to estimate deaths under different combinations of ICU and ward care required and received in England up to late April 2021. Model parameters were sourced from publicly available government information and organisations collating COVID-19 data. A sub-model was used to estimate the mortality scalars that represent increased mortality due to insufficient ICU or general ward bed capacity. Three illustrative scenarios for admissions numbers, ‘Optimistic’, ‘Middling’ and ‘Pessimistic’, were modelled and compared with the subsequent observations to the 3rd February. Results The key output was the demand and capacity model described. There were no excess deaths from a lack of capacity in the ‘Optimistic’ scenario. Several of the ‘Middling’ scenario applications resulted in excess deaths—up to 597 deaths (0.6% increase) with a 20% reduction compared to best estimate ICU capacity. All the ‘Pessimistic’ scenario applications resulted in excess deaths, ranging from 49,178 (17.0% increase) for a 20% increase in ward bed availability, to 103,735 (35.8% increase) for a 20% shortfall in ward bed availability. These scenarios took no account of the emergence of the new, more transmissible, variant of concern (b.1.1.7). Conclusions Mortality is increased when hospital demand exceeds available capacity. No excess deaths from breaching capacity would be expected under the ‘Optimistic’ scenario. The ‘Middling’ scenario could result in some excess deaths—up to a 0.7% increase relative to the total number of deaths. The ‘Pessimistic’ scenario would have resulted in significant excess deaths. Our sensitivity analysis indicated a range between 49,178 (17% increase) and 103,735 (35.8% increase). Given the new variant, the pessimistic scenario appeared increasingly likely and could have resulted in a substantial increase in the number of COVID-19 deaths. In the event, it would appear that capacity was not breached at any stage at a national level with no excess deaths. it will remain unclear if minor local capacity breaches resulted in any small number of excess deaths.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Martin ◽  
Stuart McDonald ◽  
Steve Bale ◽  
Michiel Luteijn ◽  
Rahul Sarkar

Abstract BackgroundThis paper describes a model for estimating COVID-19 related excess deaths that are a direct consequence of insufficient hospital ward bed and intensive care unit (ICU) capacity. MethodsCompartmental models were used to estimate deaths under different combinations of ICU and ward care required and received in England up to late April 2021. Model parameters were sourced from publicly available government information and organisations collating COVID-19 data. A sub-model was used to estimate the mortality scalars that represent increased mortality due to insufficient ICU or general ward bed capacity. Three illustrative scenarios for admissions numbers, ‘Optimistic’, ‘Middling’ and ‘Pessimistic’, were modelled and compared with the subsequent observations to the 3rd February. ResultsThe key output was the demand and capacity model described. There were no excess deaths from a lack of capacity in the ‘Optimistic’ scenario. Several of the ‘Middling’ scenario applications resulted in excess deaths - up to 597 deaths (0.6% increase) with a 20% reduction compared to best estimate ICU capacity. All the ‘Pessimistic’ scenario applications resulted in excess deaths, ranging from 49,178 (17.0% increase) for a 20% increase in ward bed availability, to 103,735 (35.8% increase) for a 20% shortfall in ward bed availability. These scenarios took no account of the emergence of the new, more transmissible, variant of concern (b.1.1.7).ConclusionsMortality is increased when hospital demand exceeds available capacity. No excess deaths from breaching capacity would be expected under the ‘Optimistic’ scenario. The ‘Middling’ scenario could result in some excess deaths - up to a 0.7% increase relative to the total number of deaths. The ‘Pessimistic’ scenario would have resulted in significant excess deaths. Our sensitivity analysis indicated a range between 49,178 (17% increase) and 103,735 (35.8% increase).Given the new variant, the pessimistic scenario appeared increasingly likely and could have resulted in a substantial increase in the number of COVID-19 deaths. In the event, it would appear that capacity was not breached at any stage at a national level with no excess deaths. it will remain unclear if minor local capacity breaches resulted in any small number of excess deaths.


Author(s):  
Raffaele Palladino ◽  
Jordy Bollon ◽  
Luca Ragazzoni ◽  
Francesco Barone-Adesi

In Italy, the COVID-19 epidemic curve started to flatten when the health system had already exceeded its capacity, raising concerns that the lockdown was indeed delayed. The aim of this study was to evaluate the health effects of late implementation of the lockdown in Italy. Using national data on the daily number of COVID-19 cases, we first estimated the effect of the lockdown, employing an interrupted time series analysis. Second, we evaluated the effect of an early lockdown on the trend of new cases, creating a counterfactual scenario where the intervention was implemented one week in advance. We then predicted the corresponding number of intensive care unit (ICU) admissions, non-ICU admissions, and deaths. Finally, we compared results under the actual and counterfactual scenarios. An early implementation of the lockdown would have avoided about 126,000 COVID-19 cases, 54,700 non-ICU admissions, 15,600 ICU admissions, and 12,800 deaths, corresponding to 60% (95%CI: 55% to 64%), 52% (95%CI: 46% to 57%), 48% (95%CI: 42% to 53%), and 44% (95%CI: 38% to 50%) reduction, respectively. We found that the late implementation of the lockdown in Italy was responsible for a substantial proportion of hospital admissions and deaths associated with the COVID-19 pandemic.


2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 20
Author(s):  
Muhammad Ikbal Abdullah ◽  
Andi Chairil Furqan ◽  
Nina Yusnita Yamin ◽  
Fahri Eka Oktora

This study aims to analyze the sensitivity testing using measurements of realization of regional own-source revenues and operating expenditure and to analyze the extent of the effect of sample differences between Java and non-Java provinces by using samples outside of Java. By using sensitivity analysis, the results found the influence of audit opinion on the performance of the provincial government mediated by the realization of regional operating expenditure. More specifically, when using the measurement of the absolute value of the realization of regional operating expenditure it was found that there was a direct positive and significant influence of audit opinion on the performance of the Provincial Government. However, no significant effect of audit opinion was found on the realization value of regional operating expenditure and the effect of the realization value of regional operating expenditure on the performance of the Provincial Government. This result implies that an increase in audit opinion will be more likely to be used as an incentive for the Provincial Government to increase the realization of regional operating expenditure.


Agriculture ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. 624
Author(s):  
Yan Shan ◽  
Mingbin Huang ◽  
Paul Harris ◽  
Lianhai Wu

A sensitivity analysis is critical for determining the relative importance of model parameters to their influence on the simulated outputs from a process-based model. In this study, a sensitivity analysis for the SPACSYS model, first published in Ecological Modelling (Wu, et al., 2007), was conducted with respect to changes in 61 input parameters and their influence on 27 output variables. Parameter sensitivity was conducted in a ‘one at a time’ manner and objectively assessed through a single statistical diagnostic (normalized root mean square deviation) which ranked parameters according to their influence of each output variable in turn. A winter wheat field experiment provided the case study data. Two sets of weather elements to represent different climatic conditions and four different soil types were specified, where results indicated little influence on these specifications for the identification of the most sensitive parameters. Soil conditions and management were found to affect the ranking of parameter sensitivities more strongly than weather conditions for the selected outputs. Parameters related to drainage were strongly influential for simulations of soil water dynamics, yield and biomass of wheat, runoff, and leaching from soil during individual and consecutive growing years. Wheat yield and biomass simulations were sensitive to the ‘ammonium immobilised fraction’ parameter that related to soil mineralization and immobilisation. Simulations of CO2 release from the soil and soil nutrient pool changes were most sensitive to external nutrient inputs and the process of denitrification, mineralization, and decomposition. This study provides important evidence of which SPACSYS parameters require the most care in their specification. Moving forward, this evidence can help direct efficient sampling and lab analyses for increased accuracy of such parameters. Results provide a useful reference for model users on which parameters are most influential for different simulation goals, which in turn provides better informed decision making for farmers and government policy alike.


Author(s):  
Sebastian Brandstaeter ◽  
Sebastian L. Fuchs ◽  
Jonas Biehler ◽  
Roland C. Aydin ◽  
Wolfgang A. Wall ◽  
...  

AbstractGrowth and remodeling in arterial tissue have attracted considerable attention over the last decade. Mathematical models have been proposed, and computational studies with these have helped to understand the role of the different model parameters. So far it remains, however, poorly understood how much of the model output variability can be attributed to the individual input parameters and their interactions. To clarify this, we propose herein a global sensitivity analysis, based on Sobol indices, for a homogenized constrained mixture model of aortic growth and remodeling. In two representative examples, we found that 54–80% of the long term output variability resulted from only three model parameters. In our study, the two most influential parameters were the one characterizing the ability of the tissue to increase collagen production under increased stress and the one characterizing the collagen half-life time. The third most influential parameter was the one characterizing the strain-stiffening of collagen under large deformation. Our results suggest that in future computational studies it may - at least in scenarios similar to the ones studied herein - suffice to use population average values for the other parameters. Moreover, our results suggest that developing methods to measure the said three most influential parameters may be an important step towards reliable patient-specific predictions of the enlargement of abdominal aortic aneurysms in clinical practice.


Energies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (17) ◽  
pp. 4290
Author(s):  
Dongmei Zhang ◽  
Yuyang Zhang ◽  
Bohou Jiang ◽  
Xinwei Jiang ◽  
Zhijiang Kang

Reservoir history matching is a well-known inverse problem for production prediction where enormous uncertain reservoir parameters of a reservoir numerical model are optimized by minimizing the misfit between the simulated and history production data. Gaussian Process (GP) has shown promising performance for assisted history matching due to the efficient nonparametric and nonlinear model with few model parameters to be tuned automatically. Recently introduced Gaussian Processes proxy models and Variogram Analysis of Response Surface-based sensitivity analysis (GP-VARS) uses forward and inverse Gaussian Processes (GP) based proxy models with the VARS-based sensitivity analysis to optimize the high-dimensional reservoir parameters. However, the inverse GP solution (GPIS) in GP-VARS are unsatisfactory especially for enormous reservoir parameters where the mapping from low-dimensional misfits to high-dimensional uncertain reservoir parameters could be poorly modeled by GP. To improve the performance of GP-VARS, in this paper we propose the Gaussian Processes proxy models with Latent Variable Models and VARS-based sensitivity analysis (GPLVM-VARS) where Gaussian Processes Latent Variable Model (GPLVM)-based inverse solution (GPLVMIS) instead of GP-based GPIS is provided with the inputs and outputs of GPIS reversed. The experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed GPLVM-VARS in terms of accuracy and complexity. The source code of the proposed GPLVM-VARS is available at https://github.com/XinweiJiang/GPLVM-VARS.


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kiyoaki Sugiura ◽  
Yuki Seo ◽  
Takayuki Takahashi ◽  
Hideyuki Tokura ◽  
Yasuhiro Ito ◽  
...  

Abstract Background TAS-102 plus bevacizumab is an anticipated combination regimen for patients who have metastatic colorectal cancer. However, evidence supporting its use for this indication is limited. We compared the cost-effectiveness of TAS-102 plus bevacizumab combination therapy with TAS-102 monotherapy for patients with chemorefractory metastatic colorectal cancer. Method Markov decision modeling using treatment costs, disease-free survival, and overall survival was performed to examine the cost-effectiveness of TAS-102 plus bevacizumab combination therapy and TAS-102 monotherapy. The Japanese health care payer’s perspective was adopted. The outcomes were modeled on the basis of published literature. The incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) between the two treatment regimens was the primary outcome. Sensitivity analysis was performed and the effect of uncertainty on the model parameters were investigated. Results TAS-102 plus bevacizumab had an ICER of $21,534 per quality-adjusted life-year (QALY) gained compared with TAS-102 monotherapy. Sensitivity analysis demonstrated that TAS-102 monotherapy was more cost-effective than TAS-102 and bevacizumab combination therapy at a willingness-to-pay of under $50,000 per QALY gained. Conclusions TAS-102 and bevacizumab combination therapy is a cost-effective option for patients who have metastatic colorectal cancer in the Japanese health care system.


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