Aswani wins NSF CAREER award to study personalized disease management

The National Science Foundation has just announced that IEOR assistant professor Anil Aswani will receive a CAREER award of $500,000 to investigate personalized chronic disease management starting in fiscal year 2019.

This Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER) award will contribute to the advancement of the national health and welfare by designing effective data-driven methods for personalized management of chronic diseases. Increased incidence and prevalence of chronic conditions such as diabetes and obesity have led to unsustainable growth in U.S. healthcare spending and have significantly impacted well-being. Currently, chronic diseases are managed by choosing treatments based on average patient outcomes in clinical studies with relatively homogeneous patient populations. While it is well-recognized that an individual’s disease trajectory is influenced by patient-specific traits, personalized treatment has been limited by difficulties in disentangling the complex relationships between treatment plans, patient characteristics, disease prognosis, and adherence to treatments. This award will support the development and validation of algorithms and models that combine data from large patient cohorts and from specific patients in order to bring management of chronic diseases into the home setting. The educational components of this award will support development of hands-on teaching modules and research mentoring opportunities, with the aim of broadening interest in operations research and its impact on problems in healthcare, particularly among underrepresented groups.