Week 3 R-Lecture: Intro to DAEDALUS Explore

MHIA 6160 | Value & Quality in Healthcare | 1.50 | W27

Dr. Cameron B. Chiarot

Week 3 R-Lecture

Introduction to DAEDALUS Explore

Overview

What is DAEDALUS Explore?

  • An open-access pandemic preparedness and decision-support platform.
  • Bridges the gap between complex biology & macroeconomic realities.
  • Developed by the Jameel Institute at Imperial College London.

Core Mechanism

  • Generates side-by-side macroeconomic-epidemiological projections.
  • Simulates multi-sector impacts across 67 global economies.

Peer-Reviewed Methodologies:

Measuring Value

Problem:

  • In healthcare management, value is often trapped inside clinical compartments.

Solution:

  • DAEDALUS shifts our frame of reference, forcing health system leaders to conceptualize healthcare value at the population level.

Intervention Metrics:

  • Lives saved, education preserved, and GDP protected.

Breaking-Down Silos: Lessons from COVID-19

Problem:

  • Policy: Decisions were often executed within administrative silos.
  • Public Health teams: Optimized strictly for transmission reduction.
  • National Treasuries: Focused reactively on economic preservation.
  • Ministries of Education: Broad closures to decrease contact vectors.

Consequence:

  • Societal imbalances, impacts on human capital, & economic output losses.

Solution:

  • Dynamic and evidence(data)-driven simulations to evaluate policy trade-offs.

The Dual-Lens Architecture


               [Policy Inputs / Interventions]
                              │
               ┌──────────────┴──────────────┐
               ▼                             ▼
   [Epidemiological Engine]        [Macroeconomic Engine]
   (Compartmental Dynamics)       (63-Sector Input-Output)
               │                             │
               ▼                             ▼
     [Clinical Constraints]         [Value Metric (GDP)]
    (Hospital Cap Enforced)        (Maximize Production)


Note

Economic Efficiency: Illustrative applications demonstrate that optimizing specific sector closures can preserve 24% to 29% more GDP compared to blanket non-essential lockdowns over a 6-month scenario.

Variables & System Architecture

Macroeconomic Infrastructure

  • Organizes national economies into 63 discrete economies.
  • Sectors are mapped to standard national accounting systems.
  • Integrates Input-Output (IO) Tables derived from United Nations frameworks.
  • Utilizes IO Tables to model complex supply chain interdependencies.

Epidemiological Modeling Matrix

  • Simulation: 7 hypothetical respiratory pathogens of varying severity.
  • Life Stages: Pre-School, School Age, Working Age, and Retired.
  • Tracking: Contact matrices (i.e., general community vs. labor force).

Operational Levers & Parameters


Policy Intervention Category Direct System Variable/Lever Underlying Rationale & Downstream Target
Border & Mobility Control International Travel Constraints Manages initial seed-cases and slows pathogen introduction.
Social Engineering School Closure & Remote Schedules Dampens high-mixing cohorts; directly penalizes long-term education outcomes.
Industrial Mitigation Sector-Specific Production Ceilings Truncates workplace mixing; directly penalizes Gross Value Added (GVA) / GDP.
Biologic Countermeasures Vaccine Scaling & Distribution Velocity Expands clinical recovery paths; protects hospital infrastructure capacity.

Learning Tools & Ecosystem Documentation


To prepare for the R-Lab & Capstone, here are a few resources:


System Component Application & Context Access Link
Graphical User Interface (GUI) Primary web interface for scenario testing and exporting data. Dashboard
Mathematical Foundation Core structural methodology underpinning the model. Nature Computational Science
Advanced Analytical Environments
(R Infrastructure)		 While we will use the Web Dashboard to export our data for this course, you can review the raw programmatic execution packages (daedalus, daedalus.data, daedalus.compare). Jameel Institute R-Universe Profile

Capstone Assessment & Transition to R-Lab


Alignment with the Capstone

  • Today’s R-Lecture builds the baseline for the Capstone Assessment.
  • Your Group will be tasked with selecting a country profile, initializing a hypothetical biological shock vector, and designing an optimized mitigation portfolio (inluding a strategy & recommendations). Review course outline for detailed assessment instructions.

Key Challenge:

  • You must defend your policy mix based on explicit value preservation (e.g., minimize GDP losses) & quality metrics (e.g., hospital capacity).

Next Steps for the R-Laboratory Part B


  • Navigate to the DAEDALUS Explore Web Dashboard.
  • Run a baseline scenario using the parameters for your selected country.
  • Export the resulting simulation data as a .xlsx file.
  • Open your R software, R-project file, and R-script.
  • Navigate to Week 3 R-Laboratory lesson.

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