vacalibration (version 2.0)
Calibration of Computer-Coded Verbal Autopsy Algorithm
Description
Calibrates cause-specific mortality fractions (CSMF) estimates generated by computer-coded verbal autopsy (CCVA) algorithms from WHO-standardized verbal autopsy (VA) survey data. It leverages data from the multi-country Child Health and Mortality Prevention Surveillance (CHAMPS) project , which determines gold standard causes of death via Minimally Invasive Tissue Sampling (MITS). By modeling the CHAMPS data using the misclassification matrix modeling framework proposed in Pramanik et al. (2025, ), the package includes an inventory of 48 uncertainty-quantified misclassification matrices for three CCVA algorithms (EAVA, InSilicoVA, InterVA), two age groups (neonates aged 0-27 days and children aged 1-59 months), and eight "countries" (seven countries in CHAMPS -- Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mali, Mozambique, Sierra Leone, South Africa -- and an estimate for countries not in CHAMPS). Given a VA-only data for an age group, CCVA algorithm, and country, the package uses the corresponding uncertainty-quantified misclassification matrix estimates as an informative prior, and utilizes the modular VA-calibration to produce calibrated CSMF estimates. It also supports ensemble calibration when VA-only data are provided for multiple algorithms. More generally, the package can be applied to calibrate predictions from a discrete classifier (or ensemble of classifiers) utilizing user-provided fixed or uncertainty-quantified misclassification matrices. This work is supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Grant INV-034842.