Research Overview
Healthcare Engineering
I have always sought a career that combines my two life passions: using mathematics to both help people and advance society. Given my lifelong interest in those subjects, healthcare engineering is the perfect fit for me. Healthcare problems are intellectually interesting with unique objectives that are difficult to quantify, and solving such problems can make a direct and meaningful impact on peoples’ lives.
Dissertation Research: "Addressing Geographic Inequities in Kidney Transplantation"
End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) is a large public health problem with a three-fold rise in prevalence over the past three decades. While kidney transplantation is the preferred treatment for ESRD, the system is marred by a scarcity of kidney organs for transplantation. The equitable distribution of available organs is therefore paramount and a government mandate. The current kidney allocation policy is plagued by inefficient allocation and geographic inequities. The median waiting time to kidney transplantation ranges by three years around the country.
My dissertation analyzes the current kidney allocation policy from an engineering perspective. In collaboration with kidney allocation policy officials, we developed alternative kidney sharing strategies to improve geographic inequity in kidney transplantation over time without interfering with current allocation priorities and constraints. In order to test our strategies, we employed fluid model, multi-period multi-expert optimization model, and simulation techniques. Our results show that considerable improvement in geographic equity can be achieved over a ten-year period without greatly changing current system practices and behaviors.
Future Research Directions
Currently, a new national kidney allocation policy is being debated with changes likely to be implemented within the next year. Afterwards, one of the kidney allocation policy committee’s primary objectives is to fix geographic inequities in organ transplantation. I would like to continue my research in order to influence this important policy debate.
Beyond organ allocation policies, I plan to study more general healthcare policy issues. Much attention in this country is focused on tenuous and debatable healthcare policies, and it would be a unique and rewarding experience to conduct research that will enhance the current debate.
