Rice University and The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center announced the launch of the Center for Operations Research in Cancer, a joint initiative to solve complex challenges in cancer care using data science to make better operational decisions.
Integrating operations research into healthcare systematically and at scale can help reduce costs, improve patient experience and efficiently integrate cutting-edge technologies. Leveraging the expertise within Rice’s computational applied mathematics, operations research and statistics and MD Anderson’s Institute for Data Science in Oncology (IDSO), the new center will harness mathematical modeling and data science to optimize treatment delivery, improve therapy outcomes and streamline operations at the nation’s leading cancer center and beyond.
Jeffrey Siewerdsen, professor of imaging physics and co-lead for the safety, quality and access focus area of IDSO, worked closely with Rice’s Andrew Schaefer, Noah Harding Chair and professor of computational applied mathematics and operations research, to create the center. They will serve as co-leads for the initiative.
In addition to the co-leads, center activities will rely on a steering group from each institution to help guide strategy, plan activities and measure outcomes. The joint center will serve as a hub, supporting collaborative research projects, pilot project seed funding and exchange of trainees, fellows and interns across various levels of undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate education.
The center will tackle several areas of application with significant potential for impact, including:
· Forecasting and scheduling for improved patient experience, healthcare workforce satisfaction and optimal equipment and facilities management
· Managing complex treatment regimens that evaluate an exponentially large number of options and incorporate patient response
· Improving protocols for adaptive randomized clinical trials
· Cutting-edge modeling of tumor progression using genomics and other biomarkers
· Developing customized, patient-centric screening protocols to counter potential gaps in care due to large-scale, population-based models
· Developing evidence-based models for rare cancers
The Center for Operations Research in Cancer follows the launch of the Cancer Bioengineering Collaborative by Rice and MD Anderson this summer, which aims to develop innovative technologies and bioengineering approaches to improve cancer research, diagnosis and treatment.
