Workshop/Seminar by Thomas G. YEUNG

Workshop/Seminar by Thomas G. YEUNG on November 30, 2017 Thursday 10:00 at C-126

Part 1:  (10:00)  Fundamentals of Markov Decision Processes (MDPs)

Part 2:  (11:30)  Presentation of the paper:

Raha Akhavan-Tabatabaei, Diana Marcela Sanchez, Thomas G. Yeung, “A Markov Decision Process Model for Cervical Cancer Screening Policies in Colombia”, Medical Decision Making, Vol 37, 2017

Abstract:

Cervical cancer is the second most common cancer in women around the world, and the human papillomavirus (HPV) is universally known as the necessary agent for developing this disease. Through early detection of abnormal cells and HPV virus types, cervical cancer incidents can be reduced and disease progression prevented. We propose a finite-horizon Markov decision process model to determine the optimal screening policies for cervical cancer prevention. The optimal decision is given in terms of when and what type of screening test to be performed on a patient based on her current diagnosis, age, HPV contraction risk, and screening test results. The cost function considers the tradeoff between the cost of prevention and treatment procedures and the risk of taking no action while taking into account a cost assigned to loss of life quality in each state. We apply the model to data collected from a representative sample of 1141 affiliates at a health care provider located in Bogotá, Colombia. To track the disease incidence more effectively and avoid higher cancer rates and future costs, the optimal policies recommend more frequent colposcopies and Pap tests for women with riskier profiles.

Short Bio:

Thomas G. Yeung is an associate professor at IMT-Atlantique in Nantes, France and member of the Laboratory of Digital Sciences of Nantes (LS2N).  He is also the director of the international Master MOST (Management and Optimization of Supply Chains and Transport).  He received his B.S.I.E., M.S.I.E., and Ph.D. all in industrial engineering from the University of Arkansas, USA.  Prior to academia, he worked as an independent consultant for the semiconductor industry. He has also been a visiting professor at Jiao Tong University in Shanghai, China and University of Los Andes in Bogota, Colombia. His research interests are in decision making under uncertainty applied to health care, logistics, finance, and maintenance.  His research has appeared in such journals as Naval Research Logistics, IIE Transactions, European Journal of Operational Research, Medical Decision Making, and the International Journal of Production Economics.