Abstract

In the United States, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) makes recommendations as to which cohorts (identified groups of individuals) ought to have higher priority access to vaccines when their supply is insufficient to immunize all susceptible individuals in the country. Typically, cohorts are determined based on susceptibility to contracting seasonal influenza and on the resulting consequences of infection for different age groups. For seasonal influenza, high-risk cohorts commonly include children, teenagers, pregnant women and people with different chronic diseases. This study proposes the application of revenue management theory to better allocate seasonal influenza vaccines among different risk-based population cohorts. Our model maximizes the number of immunized individuals by dynamically adjusting the price per dose in each cohort as to discourage vaccination in low-risk cohorts and preserve more supply for high-risk cohorts. Experimental results show that up to 12% of infections and deaths due to seasonal influenza could be avoided by implementing this price discrimination policy in hypothetical yet realistic scenarios.

Library of Congress Subject Headings

Vaccines--Prices--United States--Mathematical models; Price discrimination--United States--Mathematical models

Publication Date

5-10-2012

Document Type

Thesis

Department, Program, or Center

Industrial and Systems Engineering (KGCOE)

Advisor

Proano, Ruben

Comments

Note: imported from RIT’s Digital Media Library running on DSpace to RIT Scholar Works. Physical copy available through RIT's The Wallace Library at: RM281 .P66 2012

Campus

RIT – Main Campus

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