Pandya Becomes SMDM President-Elect – Center for Health Decision Science

CHDS faculty Ankur Pandya has been elected by the Society for Medical Decision Making (SMDM) membership to President-Elect for 2025-2026. Pandya will succeed Beate Jahn, Associate Professor at UMIT-Tirol and long term CHDS collaborator, who serves as President for 2025-2026. Pandya previously served as SMDM board Vice President and as a Trustee.

Pandya’s research centers around applied decision science, connecting cost-effectiveness analysis with broader US health policies, and methodological topics within disease simulation modeling. His focal areas include cardiovascular disease and value-based health policy. His research has been covered by multiple media outlets including The New York Times, National Public Radio, and NBC Nightly News. Pandya teaches several decision science courses at the Harvard Chan School and has been the recipient of both the Roger L. Nichols Excellence in Teaching Award and the Teaching Citation Award.

CHDS researchers past and present were also elected to Officer and Trustee positions: Emily Burger, Professor at the University of Oslo and current CHDS research scientist was elected as Vice President-Elect, and Jenny Spencer, Assistant Professor at the University of Texas at Austin and past CHDS post doctoral fellow, was elected as a Trustee.

About the Society for Medical Decision Making (SMDM)

SMDM is an organization working to improve health and clinical care of individuals and populations through advancement of systematic methods to address decision-making. SMDM holds annual meetings, publishes two journals (Medical Decision Making and open access Medical Decision Making Policy & Practice), and maintains a website with member access to networking opportunities and education & career tools. SMDM offers short courses in topics such as decision analysis and decision-analytic modeling, cost-effectiveness analysis, shared decision making, and psychology of medical decision making.