Director, Massachusetts General Hospital Institute for Technology Assessment
and Associate Prof., Harvard Medical School
Dr. Chhatwal's research is centered in decision science, data analytics, outcomes research and health economics. Dr. Chhatwal has over 12 years of experience in developing mathematical models to inform health policy. For the last several years, he has worked in the area of developing decision-analytic models in liver diseases to inform clinical decisions and health policies. Dr. Chhatwal has collaborated with the Department of Health and Human Services and the World Health Organization (WHO) to policies leading to hepatitis C elimination in the United States and elsewhere. In partnership with the WHO, his groups recently developed an interactive modeling tool, the Hep C Calculator, that allows policymakers from 28 countries to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of hepatitis C treatment in those countries. Dr. Chhatwal’s work has been featured in leading media such as The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, and National Public Radio. He currently serves as a cost-effectiveness and decision analysis editor of Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology and is also an editorial board member of Medical Decision Making.
Assistant Professor of Quantitative Analysis,
Mississippi State Univ. College of Business
Dr. Zhuo joined the faculty at Mississippi State University in 2020. Prior, she was a post-doctoral research fellow working with Dr. Jagpreet Chhatwal. She joined MGH-ITA as a clinical research coordinator in January 2018. She earned her PhD in Management Science at the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 2019. She received a BS degree in Chemistry in 2010 and MEng degree in Control Engineering in 2012, both at Nankai University, China.
Dr. Zhuo’s research interest lies in operations management, with applications in health care. Her main methodology involves optimization with uncertainties, including stochastic programming, dynamic modeling, and simulation. She is currently working in the area of Hepatitis C virus infection, with a focus on the cost-effectiveness analysis and health economics of disease screening and treatment.
Former Research Associate, MGH
Institute for Technology Assessment
Asmae Toumi holds a Bachelor of Science in the Life Sciences from McGill University, where she also pursued clinical and basic science research. She is a past recipient of an American Physiological Society Undergraduate Research Fellowship. At the ITA, she works on health outcomes research under Dr. Jag Chhatwal and Dr. Carrie Lubitz. She is passionate about data science, healthcare optimization and sports analytics.
Assistant Professor in the Harold and Inge Marcus
Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering
The Pennsylvania State University
Dr Chen completed a post-doctoral research fellow at MGH-ITA, and continues to work with Dr. Jagpreet Chhatwal. He received his PhD in Operations Research from Georgia Institute of Technology in 2016 December, and a BS in Industrial Engineering from Tsinghua University, China, in 2010. Qiushi’s research interests focus on the mathematical modeling and optimization in the area of health care, including stochastic and dynamic modeling of health interventions, disease prevention and treatment strategies, and health economic evaluation with disease simulation models. He has been closely collaborating with health practitioners from various health institutes such as Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University, the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, and Massachusetts General Hospital. He has won the first prize of 2016 INFORMS Decision Analysis Society Student Paper Competition, and received the honorable mention of 2016 Public Sector Operations Research Best Paper Competition. He also received the George Fellowship from the George Family Foundation in 2012.
Former Research Affiliate, MGH
Institute for Technology Assessment
Tia is using her graphical skills to design infographics for the NAFLD Simulator. Her interests include health policy, decision analysis, cost-effectiveness analysis, and outcomes research.
George Family Foundation Early Career Professor
at H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering,
Georgia Institute of Technology
Dr. Ayer is the Director of Business Intelligence and Healthcare Analytics at the Center for Health and Humanitarian Systems at at Georgia Institute of Technology. In addition, he has a courtesy appointment at Emory Medical School.
His research focuses on socially responsible operations and practice-focused research, with a particular emphasis on healthcare analytics. His research papers have been published in top tier management, engineering and medical journals, and covered by popular media outlets, including the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, US News, and NPR.
Systems Manager, MGH
Institute for Technology Assessment
M. A. maintains the informational website for the NAFLD Simulator and several other sites. She has over 20 years of experience in website development and system administration.
Director of Outcomes Research for the Center for Observational and Real-World Evidence, Merck
Dr. Amy Puenpatom has more than 15 years in health economics and outcomes research in the pharmaceuticals industry in the US and policy research in Thailand. She has published extensively and presented at national and international congresses in the areas of outcomes research studies in multiple therapeutic areas including Infectious Disease (Hepatitis C), Immunology, pain, and men’s health. She earned her PhD in Economics from Washington State University and an MA in International Economics from Chulalongkorn University, Thailand.
