Lina Song & Vidit Munshi Defend Dissertations

Lina Song and Vidit Munshi, doctoral students in Decision Science/Health Policy, both successfully defended their doctoral theses this May, via ZOOM.

Song’s dissertation, “Data-Driven Healthcare Operations Management: The Role of Provider Market and Public Policy,” was overseen by Soroush Saghafian (chair), Joe Newhouse, and Mary Beth Landrum. Her dissertation examined the role of public policy in improving the process and service of the U.S. healthcare delivery system. She focused on how the recent prominent changes in the provider market structures, such as hospital closure and hospital-physician vertical integration and relevant policies, affect the efficiency and quality of the healthcare delivery system. Song will start as an Assistant Professor in Operations and Technology at the University College London School of Management beginning September, 2020.

Munshi’s dissertation, “Risk-Based Strategies for Population Screening and Disease Management,” was overseen by Jane Kim (chair), Soroush Saghafian, and Ankur Pandya. His dissertation utilized modeling to explore strategies that leverage calculated downstream risk based on previous test or screening results to improve decision-making in multiple disease areas. His results suggest that extending the screening interval based on early negative screens is likely to be cost-effective for cervical cancer but may not be for colorectal cancer. Furthermore, managing women at risk of cervical cancer who have abnormal screens on the basis of downstream risk is likely to be cost-effective compared to previous guidelines. And finally, improved screening for diabetes using hemoglobin A1c and blood glucose can improve patient outcomes after organ transplantation.

Learn more: Read about the PhD Program in Health Policy’s Decision Science Concentration
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