BME Seminar Series Wednesday, October 3, 2012 9:30-10:20am MJIS 1001 The seminar will be teleconferenced to SL-220 at IUPUI. Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering Purdue University Geographic Disparity in National Kidney Allocation: The Problem, Proposed Solutions and Lessons Learned Sanjay Mehrotra Professor, Industrial Engineering and Management Sciences McCormick School of Engineering Northwestern University Abstract: Kidney transplantation leads to longer survival, better quality of life, and significant cost savings for End Stage Kidney Disease (ESKD) patients. Kidney transplantation however is marred by a scarcity of kidney organs for transplantation. There are currently over 87,700 ESKD patients listed for a kidney transplant in the United States, yet in 2009, only 16,829 kidney transplants were performed. A significant geographic disparity exists in the number of available organs and quality of organs which become available in each donor service area (DSA). We will present our work towards developing a model based approach to help guide United Network of Organ Sharing (UNOS) decision makers in crafting an implementable policy that would take the system towards reducing geographic disparity in Kidney allocation over time. Along the way we will present fundamental lessons learned in this collaborative research effort with transplant surgeons and nephrologists currently spanned over three years. Bio: Sanjay Mehrotra is an Optimization and Healthcare Engineering expert. His current methodology research focus is in the area of Optimization and Decision Making under Uncertainty. His Healthcare Engineering work includes predictive modeling, hospital operations modeling, and policy modeling on varied health problems using modern operations research tools. Mehrotra is widely known for his predictor-corrector method and his contribution to continuous, discrete, and stochastic optimization. He is the chair-elect of INFORMS Optimization Society for Year 2011-2012, and has been a board member representing the subdivision council for the Institute for Operations Research and Management Sciences. He is currently leading the effort at Northwestern University to develop a Healthcare Engineering research and educational program. He has held many editorial positions, and has been funded by NSF, ONR, DOE and NIH. ~BME Faculty Hosts: Mark Lawley and Nan Kong~ Co-listed as a graduate seminar in the School of Industrial Engineering ***Coffee and juice will be provided at West Lafayette***