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New Articles Posted in the OR Forum

Intelligence Operations Research: The 2010 Philip McCord Morse Lecture

In the November/December 2012 issue of Operations Research, Ed Kaplan writes about the subject of his 2010 Philip McCord Morse Lecture, “Intelligence Operations Research.” Here he discusses applications of operations research to intelligence problems in national security and counterterrorism. As he illustrates in his review of the literature, this is a distinctive problem area to which he has made notable contributions but also offers many opportunities for new research with the potential to improve the security of our society.

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A POMDP Approach to Personalize Mammography Screening Decisions

In the September/October 2012 issue of Operations Research, Turgay Ayer, Oguzhan Alagoz, and Natasha Stout write about personalizing protocols for breast cancer screening using mammography. Mammograms aim to detect breast cancer at an early stage, allowing for greater flexibility in treatment modalities and increased probability of cure. As a result, women typically receive regular mammograms annually or bi-annually from age 40.  However, mammograms have high false positive rates, leading to unnecessary testing and treatments, as well as anxiety. Mammograms also expose women to radiation, which over time may cause cancers as well. The authors introduce a method for creating screening protocols that will improve survival rates through more timely detection, while reducing the overall usage of mammography and false positive rates. Current screening protocols are one-size-fits-all; this paper seeks to customize them to an individual’s personal risk characteristics and screening history. The paper is indicative of an important trend in healthcare. As medical researchers discover more genetic links to diseases and patient information profiles are richer and easier to store, communicate, and analyze, personalizing healthcare by customizing diagnostic and treatment protocols will become easier. The challenges to personalizing healthcare that arise in the mammography context will apply to other areas as well.

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