O.R./Analytics in Action Blog

I have had a strong interest in answering screening policy questions associated with breast cancer since 2006. Questions such as when to start and screening or how often to screen women are among the most controversial issues regarding breast cancer, the most common non-skin cancer in US women. Although mammography is the most effective modality for breast cancer screening, it has several potential risks including high false-positive rates. Therefore, the balance of benefits and risks is critical in designing a mammography screening schedule, which requires a formal framework to evaluate these effects such as simulation modeling.

In this blog post, Prof Archis Ghate of the University of Washington in Seattle describes how operations research can help make adaptive individualized radiotherapy a reality. He received the NSF CAREER Award in 2011 for his research.