Students

Tai Dinger

Tai Dinger is a 1^st year student in the Harvard PhD Program in Health Policy, in the decision science track. Tai holds a BS in Biology and an MS in Management Science and Engineering (Health Systems Modeling) from Stanford University.

Mike Eber

Mike Eber is a 2^nd year student in the Harvard PhD Program in Health Policy, in the decision science track. Mike holds a BSE in Operations Research and Financial Engineering from Princeton University.

Fangli Geng

Fangli Geng is a 5^th year student in the Harvard PhD Program in Health Policy, in the decision science track. Fangli holds a MS from the Harvard Chan School.

John Giardina

John Giardina is a 5^th year student in the Harvard PhD Program in Health Policy, in the decision science track. John holds a MA in Economics from the University of Connecticut.

Yuli (Lily) Hsieh

Yuli (Lily) Hsieh is a 3^rd year student in the Harvard PhD Program in Health Policy, in the decision science track. Lily holds a MPH from Yale University.

Lyndon James

Lyndon James is a 4^th year student in the Harvard PhD Program in Health Policy, in the decision science track. Lyndon holds a MPH from the Harvard Chan School.

Andrea Luviano

Andrea Luviano is a 1^st year PhD student in the Harvard PhD Program in Health Policy, in the decision science track. Andrea is an MD from ITESM and holds an MPH from the Harvard Chan School.

Ye Shen

Ye Shen is a 2^nd year PhD student in the Harvard PhD Program in Health Policy, in the decision science track. Ye holds a MSPH from Johns Hopkins School of Public Health.

Karen Smith

Karen Smith is a 4^th year PhD student in the Harvard PhD Program in Health Policy, in the decision science track. Before joining the program, Karen was a Research Assistant at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

Radhika Tampi

Radhika Tampi is a 2^nd year PhD student in the Harvard PhD Program in Health Policy, in the decision science track. Radhika holds an MHS in Health Economics from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Jinyi Zhu

Jinyi Zhu is a 6^th year student in the Harvard PhD Program in Health Policy, in the decision science track. Jinyi holds a MPH from Yale University.

Student Publications

2021

Hughes TM, Empringham B, Wagner AK, Ward ZJ, Yeh J, Gupta S, Frazier AL, Denburg AE. Forecasting Essential Childhood Cancer Drug Need: An Innovative Model-Based Approach. Cancer. 2021 Apr 12. PMID: 33844270.
Ward ZJ, Bleich SN, Long MW, Gortmaker SL. Association of Body Mass Index with Health Care Expenditures in the United States by Age and Sex. PLoS One. 2021 Mar 24;16(3):e0247307. PMID: 33760880.
Rodriguez PJ, Ward ZJ, Long MW, Austin SB, Wright DR. Applied Methods for Estimating Transition Probabilities from Electronic Health Record Data. Med Decision Making 2021; 41 (2): 143-152.
Gupta S, Zhu J, McCarty TR, Pruce J, Kassam Z, Kelly C, Fischer M, Allegretti JR. Cost-Effectiveness Analysis of Sequential Fecal Microbiota Transplantation for Fulminant C. difficile Infection. J Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2021 Mar 7. doi: 10.1111/jgh.15483. PMID: 33682170.
Ward ZJ, Scott AM, Hricak H, Atun R. Global Costs, Health Benefits, and Economic Benefits of Scaling Up Treatment and Imaging Modalities for Survival of 11 Cancers: A Simulation-Based Analysis. Lancet Oncol. 2021 Mar;22(3):341-350. PMID: 33662286.
Chen T, Huang S, Li G, Zhang Y, Li Y, Zhu J, Shi X, Li X, Xie G, Zhang L. An Integrated Framework for Modelling Quantitative Effects of Entry Restrictions and Travel Quarantine on Importation Risk of COVID-19. J Biomed Inform. 2021 May 6:103800. PMID: 33965636.
Hricak H, Abdel-Wahab M, Atun R, Lette MM, Paez D, Brink JA, Donoso-Bach L, Frija G, Hierath M, Holmberg O, Khong PL, Lewis JS, McGinty G, Oyen WJG, Shulman LN, Ward ZJ, Scott AM. Medical Imaging and Nuclear Medicine: a Lancet Oncology Commission. Lancet Oncol. 2021 Mar 3:S1470-2045(20)30751-8. doi: 10.1016/S1470-2045(20)30751-8. PMID: 33676609 Review.
Eber MR, Sunstein CR, Hammitt JK, Yeh JM. The Modest Effects of Fact Boxes on Cancer Screening. Journal of Risk and Uncertainty 2021.
Bilinski A, Salomon JA, Giardina J, Ciaranello A, Fitzpatrick MC. Passing the Test: A Model-Based Analysis of Safe School-Reopening Strategies. Ann Intern Med. 2021 Jun 8. PMID: 34097433.
McGuinness B, Troncone M, James LP, Bisch S, Iyer V. Reassessing the Operative Threshold for Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm Repair in the Context of COVID-19. J Vasc Surg. 2021 Mar;73(3):780-788. doi: 10.1016/j.jvs.2020.08.115. Epub 2020 Sep 1. PMID: 32882347.
James LP, Salomon JA, Buckee CO, Menzies NA. The Use and Misuse of Mathematical Modeling for Infectious Disease Policy-Making: Lessons for the COVID-19 Pandemic. Medical Decision Making 2021.
Munshi VN, Saghafian S, Cook CB, Aradhyula SV, Chakkera HA. Use of Imputation and Decision Modeling to Improve Diagnosis and Management of Patients at Risk for New-Onset Diabetes After Transplantation. Ann Transplant. 2021 Mar 16;26:e928624. doi: 10.12659/AOT.928624. PMID: 33723204.

2020

Munshi VN, Saghafian S, Cook CB, Werner KT, Chakkera HA. Comparison of Post-Transplantation Diabetes Mellitus Incidence and Risk Factors between Kidney and Liver Transplantation Patients. PLoS One. 2020 Jan 10; 15(1):e0226873. PMID: 31923179.
Mason SE, Zhu J, Rahaghi FN, Washko GR, Pandya A. Cost-Effectiveness Microsimulation of Catheter-Directed Thrombolysis in Submassive Pulmonary Embolism Using a Right Ventricular Function Model. J Thromb Thrombolysis. 2020 Feb 11. doi: 10.1007/s11239-020-02058-y. PMID: 32048167.
Spahillari A, Zhu J, Ferket BS, Hunink MGM, Carr JJ, Terry JG, Nelson C, Mwasongwe S, Mentz RJ, O’Brien EC, Correa A, Shah RV, Murthy VL, Pandya A. Cost-Effectiveness of Contemporary Statin Use Guidelines With or Without Coronary Artery Calcium Assessment in African American Individuals. JAMA Cardiol. 2020 May 13. doi: 10.1001/jamacardio.2020.1240.
Ehrhardt MJ, Ward ZJ, Liu Q, Chaudhry A, Nohria A, Border W, Fulbright JM, Mulrooney DA, Oeffinger KC, Nathan PC, Leisenring WM, Constine LS, Gibson TM, Chow EJ, Howell RM, Robison LL, Armstrong GT, Hudson MM, Diller L, Yasui Y, Armenian SH, Yeh JM. Cost-Effectiveness of the International Late Effects of Childhood Cancer Guideline Harmonization Group Screening Guidelines to Prevent Heart Failure in Survivors of Childhood Cancer. J Clin Oncol. 2020 Aug 14:JCO2000418. doi: 10.1200/JCO.20.00418. PMID: 32795226.
Geng F, Stevenson DG, Grabowski DC. Daily Nursing Home Staffing Levels Highly Variable, Often Below CMS Expectations. Health Aff (Millwood). 2019 Jul;38(7):1095-1100. doi: 10.1377/hlthaff.2018.05322. PMID: 31260368.
He Q, Zhu J, Wang A, Ji K, Ji X, Zhang J, Wu X, Li X, Bu Z, Ji J. A Decision Analysis Comparing Three Strategies for Peritoneal Lavage Cytology Testing in Staging of Gastric Cancer in China. 2020 Oct 13. doi: 10.1002/cam4.3518. PMID: 33047873.
Woo S, Atun R, Ward ZJ, Scott AM, Hricak H, Vargas HA. Diagnostic Performance of Conventional and Advanced Imaging Modalities for Assessing Newly Diagnosed Cervical Cancer: Systemic Review and Meta-Analysis. Eur Radiol. 2020 May 15. doi: 10.1007/s00330-020-06909-3. PMID: 32415584.
Ward ZJ, Scott AM, Hricak H, Abdel-Wahab M, Paez D, Lette MM, Vargas AH, Kingham PT, Atun R. Estimating the Impact of Treatment and Imaging Modalities on 5-Year Net Survival of 11 Cancers in 200 Countries: A Simulation-Based Analysis. Lancet Oncol. 2020 Aug;21(8):1077-1088. doi.org/10.1016/S1470-2045(20)30317-X.
Hsieh YL, Jahn A, Menzies NA, Yaesoubi R, Salomon JA, Girma B, Gunde L, Eaton JW, Auld A, Odo M, Kiyiika CN, Kalua T, Chiwandira B, Mpunga JU, Mbendra K, Corbett L, Hosseinipour MC, Cohen T, Kunkel A. An Evaluation of 6-Month Versus Continuous Isoniazid Preventive Therapy for M. Tuberculosis in Adults Living with HIV/AIDS in Malawi. J Acquir Immune Defic Syndr. 2020 Sep 9. doi: 10.1097/QAI.0000000000002497.
Kenney EL, Barrett JL, Bleich SN, Ward ZJ, Cradock AL, Gortmaker SL. Impact of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act on Obesity Trends. Health Aff (Millwood). 2020 Jul;39 (7):1122-1129.
Munshi VN, Saghafian S, Cook CB, Eric Steidley D, Hardaway B, Chakkera HA. Incidence, Risk Factors, and Trends for Postheart Transplantation Diabetes Mellitus. Am J Cardiol. 2020 Feb 1; 125(3):436-440. PMID: 31812226.
Yeh JM, Ward ZJ, Chaudhry A, Liu Q, Yasui Y, Armstrong GT, Gibson TM, Howell R, Hudson MM, Krull KR, Leisenring WM, Oeffinger KC, Diller. Life Expectancy of Adult Survivors of Childhood Cancer Over 3 Decades. JAMA Oncol. 2020 Jan 2. doi: 10.1001/jamaoncol.2019.5582. PMID: 31895405.
Ward ZJ, Grover S, Scott AM, Woo S, Salama DH, Jones EC, El-Diasty T, Pieters BR, Trimble EL, Vargas AH, et al. The Role and Contribution of Treatment and Imaging Modalities in Global Cervical Cancer Management: Survival Estimates from a Simulation-Based Analysis. Lancet Oncol. 2020 Aug; 21(8):1089-1098. org/10.1016/S1470-2045(20)30316-8
Atun R, Bhakta N, Denburg A, Frazier AL, Friedrich P, Gupta S, Lam CG, Ward ZJ, Yeh JM, Allemani C, Coleman MP, Di Carlo V, Loucaides E, Fitchett E, Girardi F, Horton SE, Bray F, Steliarova-Foucher E, Sullivan R, Aitken JF, Banavali S, Binagwaho A, Alcasabas P, Antillon F, Arora RS, Barr RD, Bouffet E, Challinor J, Fuentes-Alabi S, Gross T, Hagander L, Hoffman RI, Herrera C, Kutluk T, Marcus KJ, Moreira C, Pritchard-Jones K, Ramirez O, Renner L, Robison LL, Shalkow J, Sung L, Yeoh A, Rodriguez-Galindo C. Sustainable Care for Children with Cancer: A Lancet Oncology Commission. Lancet Oncol. 2020 Apr;21(4):e185-e224. doi: 10.1016/S1470-2045(20)30022-X. Review. PMID: 32240612.
Giardina JC, Cha T, Atlas SJ, Barry MJ, Freiberg AA, Leavitt L, Marques F, Sepucha K. Validation of an Electronic Coding Algorithm to Identify the Primary Indication of Orthopedic Surgeries from Administrative Data. BMC Med Inform Decis Mak. 2020 Aug 12;20(1):187. doi: 10.1186/s12911-020-01175-1. PMID: 32787849.
Sruamsiri R, Ferrario A, Ross-Degnan D, Denburg AE, Frazier AL, Gupta S, Ward ZJ, Yeh JM, Wagner AK. What Are the Volume and Budget Needs to Provide Chemotherapy to all Children with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia in Thailand? Development and Application of an Estimation Tool. BMJ Open. 2020 Oct 26;10(10):e041901. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2020-041901. PMCID: PMC759226.

2019

Ward ZJ. 2-6 Years-of-Age is the Period Associated with Greatest BMI Acceleration among Obese Adolescents. J Pediatr. 2019 Mar;206:298-301. doi: 10.1016/j.jpeds.2018.12.073. No abstract available. PMID: 30798832.
Song LD, Newhouse JP, Garcia-Albeniz X, Hsu J. Changes in Screening Colonoscopy Following Medicare Reimbursement and Cost-Sharing Changes. Health Services Research 2019; 54 (4): 839-850.
Long MW, Polacsek M, Bruno P, Giles CM, Ward ZJ, Cradock AL, Gortmaker SL. Cost-Effectiveness Analysis and Stakeholder Evaluation of 2 Obesity Prevention Policies in Maine, US. Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior 2019.
Andersen LW, Holmberg MJ, Granfeldt A, James LP, Caulley L. Cost-Effectiveness of Public Automated External Defibrillators. Resuscitation 2019; 138: 250-258.
Basto-Abreu A, Barrientos-Gutiérrez T, Vidaña-Pérez D, Colchero MA, Hernández-F M, Hernández-Ávila M, Ward ZJ, Long MW, Gortmaker SL. Cost-Effectiveness Of The Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Excise Tax In Mexico. Health Aff (Millwood). 2019 Nov;38(11):1824-1831. doi: 10.1377/hlthaff.2018.05469. PMID: 31682510.
Kenney EL, Cradock AL, Long MW, Barrett JL, Giles CM, Ward ZJ, Gortmaker SL. Cost-Effectiveness of Water Promotion Strategies in Schools for Preventing Childhood Obesity and Increasing Water Intake. Obesity (Silver Spring). 2019 Dec;27(12):2037-2045. doi: 10.1002/oby.22615. PMID: 31746555.
Geng F, Stevenson DG, Grabowski DC. Daily Nursing Home Staffing Levels Highly Variable, Often Below CMS Expectations. Health Aff (Millwood). 2019 Jul;38(7):1095-1100. doi: 10.1377/hlthaff.2018.05322. PMID: 31260368. Erratum in Health Aff (Millwood) 2019 Sep; 38(9):1598.
Ward ZJ, Yeh JM, Bhakta N, Frazier AL, Atun R. Estimating the Total Incidence of Global Childhood Cancer: A Simulation-Based Analysis. Lancet Oncol. 2019 Feb 26. pii: S1470-2045(18)30909-4. doi: 10.1016/S1470-2045(18)30909-4. PMID: 30824204.
Ward ZJ, Rodriguez P, Wright DR, Austin SB, Long MW. Estimation of Eating Disorders Prevalence by Age and Associations with Mortality in a Simulated Nationally Representative US Cohort. JAMA Netw Open. 2019 Oct 2;2(10):e1912925. doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2019.12925. PMID: 31596495.
Ward ZJ, Yeh JM, Bhakta N, Frazier AL, Girardi F, Atun R. Global Childhood Cancer Survival Estimates and Priority-Setting: A Simulation-Based Analysis. Lancet Oncol. 2019 May 22. pii: S1470-2045(19)30273-6. doi: 10.1016/S1470-2045(19)30273-6. PMID: 31129029.
Yeh JM, Ward ZJ, Chaudhry A, Liu Q, Yasui Y, Armstrong GT, Gibson TM, Howell R, Hudson MM, Krull KR, Leisenring WM, Oeffinger KC, Diller L. Life Expectancy of Adult Survivors of Childhood Cancer Over 3 Decades. JAMA Oncol. 2020 Jan 2. doi: 10.1001/jamaoncol.2019.5582. PMID: 31895405.
Ward ZJ, Bleich SN, Cradock AL, Barrett JL, Giles CM, Flax C, Long MW, Gortmaker SL. Projected U.S. State-Level Prevalence of Adult Obesity and Severe Obesity. N Engl J Med. 2019 Dec 19;381(25):2440-2450. doi: 10.1056/NEJMsa1909301. PMID: 31851800.
Loomer L, Gandhi A, Geng F, Grabowski DC. Secret Shopper Data on Private Prices in the Nursing Home Industry from 2008 to 2010. Medical Care Research and Review 2019.
Song LD, Saghafian S. The Spillover Effects of Hospital Closures on the Efficiency and Quality of Other Hospitals. HKS Working Paper No. RWP19-006. 2019.
Wittenberg E, James LP, Prosser LA. Spillover Effects on Caregivers’ and Family Members’ Utility: A Systematic Review of the Literature. Pharmacoeconomics. 2019; 37 (4): 475-499.
Hammitt JK, Geng F, Guo X, Nielsen CP. Valuing Mortality Risk in China: Comparing Stated-Preference Estimates from 2005 and 2016. Journal of Risk and Uncertainty. 2019 Jun;58(2-3):167-186.

2018

Pandya A, Doran T, Zhu J, Walker S, Arntson E, Ryan AM. Modelling the Cost-Effectiveness of Pay-for-Performance in Primary Care in the UK. BMC Medicine 2018; 16 (1): 135.

Student Awards

2021

Lily Hsieh was awarded the 2021 Raiffa Award from the Center for Health Decision Science at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health. The fund is intended to support the training of scholars pursuing doctoral and post-doctoral studies in decision and risk analysis.

Lyndon James was awarded the 2021 Raiffa Award from the Center for Health Decision Science at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health. The fund is intended to support the training of scholars pursuing doctoral and post-doctoral studies in decision and risk analysis.

Jinyi Zhu was awarded the 2021 Teaching Assistant Recognition Award from the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health. Winners are nominated by students to recognize “teaching assistants who have demonstrated excellence as teaching as characterized by commitment, preparation, quality of presentation, time for questions and other factors related to instruction.”

2020

Mike Eber was awarded the 2020 Student of Merit Award from the Society for Risk Analysis (SRA) Economics and Benefits Analysis Specialty Group. The award is given to the best student abstract at the SRA Annual Meeting in the area of economics and benefits analysis.

Fangli Geng was awarded the 2020 Raiffa Award from the Center for Health Decision Science at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health. The fund is intended to support the training of scholars pursuing doctoral and post-doctoral studies in decision and risk analysis.

John Giardina was awarded the 2020 Raiffa Award from the Center for Health Decision Science at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health. The fund is intended to support the training of scholars pursuing doctoral and post-doctoral studies in decision and risk analysis.

Karen Smith was awarded a National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship. The NSF’s Graduate Research Fellowship Program recognizes and supports outstanding graduate students in NSF-supported STEM disciplines.

Jinyi Zhu was awarded a Harvard China Partnership (HCHP) research award. HCHP research awards provide support for Harvard students and post-doctoral fellows to conduct research on public health issues in China.

2019

Allison Portnoy was awarded the 2019 Clarence James and Sarah Bradley Gamble Scholarship, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

Allison Portnoy was awarded the 2019 Michael von Clemm Traveling Fellowship from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Winners are awarded to students traveling abroad in support of academic courses, supervised thesis work, or academic program-related internships.

John Giardina was awarded the 2019 GSAS Graduate Society Summer Predissertation Fellowship from the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Harvard University. Awards are given to “support to outstanding GSAS doctoral students in the humanities and social sciences for the purpose of summer language study and/or preliminary dissertation research or fieldwork.”

Lina Song was awarded the 2019 (with coauthor Soroush Saghafian) First Place Award at the College of Healthcare Best Paper Competition, Production Operations Management Society (POMS) Annual Meeting. Paper Title: “Do Hospital Closures Improve the Efficiency and Quality of Other Hospitals?” Winners are awarded to “outstanding papers in the field of Healthcare Operations Management. Each submitted paper is judged based on its contribution towards the advancement of theory and practice of Healthcare Operations Management.”

Jinyi Zhu was awarded the Lee B. Lusted Student Award in the Quantitative Methods & Theoretical Developments (QMTD) from the Society for Medical Decision Making (SMDM). “Trainee achievement is recognized by the annual presentation of the Lee B. Lusted Student Prizes for outstanding presentations of research at the Annual Meeting.”

2018

Lyndon James* was awarded the 2018 Teaching Assistant Award from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Winners are nominated by students to recognize “teaching assistants who have demonstrated excellence as teaching as characterized by commitment, preparation, quality of presentation, time for questions and other factors related to instruction.”

Allison Portnoy was awarded the 2018 Uwe Brinkmann Memorial Travel Award from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. The fund is awarded to doctoral students conducting field research in international health epidemiology.

Zachary Ward was awarded the 2018 Raiffa Award from the Center for Health Decision Science at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health. The fund is intended to support the training of scholars pursuing doctoral and post-doctoral studies in decision and risk analysis.

Jinyi Zhu was awarded the 2018 Raiffa Award from the Center for Health Decision Science at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health. The fund is intended to support the training of scholars pursuing doctoral and post-doctoral studies in decision and risk analysis.

Students in the News

Zach Ward received extensive press coverage for his research focused on obesity in the United States from Boston Magazine and Live Science.

Mark Shrime was featured in the New York Times for his research focused on surgical delivery in low- and middle-income countries and the accessibility of safe surgeries.

Paula Chu had her research on yoga and cardiovascular health featured on Reuter’s and CBS News.

Mark Shrime received press from Fast Company for a piece he wrote on how easy it is to get medical research published and how to keep an eye out for fake journals.