University at Buffalo, The State University of New York
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Biography

Research

Information Fusion and Complex Event Detection

Efficient Computation of Social Network Metrics

Optimal Resource Allocation for Spacial Analysis

Causal Inference with Observational Data

Social Network Analysis of Online Smoking Cessation Communities

Stochastic Modeling of Hospital Readmission Process

Teaching

IE 374: Systems Modeling and Optimization: Operations Research II

IE 575: Stochastic Methods

IE 411/511: Social Network Behavior Analysis

Stochastic Modeling of Hospital Readmission Process

Description
Personnel

Description

High readmission rates of patients after their hospital discharge is a serious concern for the U.S. healthcare system, negatively impacting the wellbeing of people, especially the increasing population of elderly citizens. In the existing literature on quantitative (mostly Finite State Machine and Markov Chain) modeling of transitions of disease stages, a recognized shortcoming is the inability to accurately model conditional transition probabilities assuming the interdependence of patient health states, attributes, decisions and timing, under uncertainty.
This project addresses the challenge of reducing hospital readmission rates through the structured, educated Care Transition program design and implementation by using stochastic models capable of capturing the dynamics of patient health status. The project identifies quantitative models best-suited for the assessment and analysis of Care Transition program procedures, incorporating the effects of multiple intervention steps and the uncertainties in patient decision-making and health progression, and creates decision-support tools that can conduct the continuous assessment of the program outcome, depending on the level of patient commitment, providing feedback to the patients, care providers and insurance payers, to better inform all the stakeholders.

Personnel

Collaborators: Dr. Li Lin (Industrial Engineering, UB), Dr. Manish Shah (School of Medicine, University of Rochester), Dr. Suzanne Gillespie (Monroe Community Hospital)
Students: Sabrina Casucci (Ph.D.)

Contact information: Phone: (716) 645-4710; Fax: (716) 645-3302; E-mail: anikolae@buffalo.edu

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