Soroush Saghafian

Dr. Soroush Saghafian, Assistant Professor of Public Policy (and Adjunct Assistant Professor of Healthcare Systems Engineering, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine), is interested in using and developing operations research and management science techniques that can have significant public level benefits. His current research focuses on the application and development of operations research methods in studying stochastic systems with specific applications in healthcare and operations management. He has been collaborating with a variety of hospitals in improving their operational efficiency, patient flow, medical decision-making, and more broadly, healthcare delivery policies. He also serves as a faculty affiliate of Harvard Ph.D. Program in Health Policy.

Dr. Saghafian holds a Ph.D. in Industrial and Operations Engineering (2012) and a Master’s degree in Mathematics (2009) both from the University of Michigan, and a Master’s degree in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research (2005) from Sharif University of Technology. He has won various awards for his research including POMS 2017 College of Healthcare Best Paper Award (second place), INFORMS MSOM (Manufacturing & Service Operations Management) Journal 2016 Best Paper Award, INFORMS MSOM Society 2016 Best Paper Award of Service Special Interest Group (SIG), INFORMS 2015 Junior Faculty Interest Group (JFIG) Best Paper Competition (Honorable Mention), INFORMS 2012 MSOM (Manufacturing and Service Operations Management Society) Best Student Paper Award, 2012 IOE Richard Wilson Prize, 2010 INFORMS Pierskalla Award (from INFORMS Healthcare Applications Society) for the best research paper in healthcare, University of Michigan College of Engineering Outstanding Ph.D. Research Award, Production and Operations Management (POMS) 2011 College of Healthcare Operations Management best paper award (second place), 2010 Murty Prize for best research paper in optimization, and the 2007 IOE Bonder Fellowship award for applied operations research, INFORMS 2011 Doing Good with Good OR Award (Honorable Mention), and POMS College of Supply Chain 2013 and 2009 Best Student Paper Award (Honorable Mention).

Dr. Saghafian serves on the editorial board of a few journals including Production and Operations Management, and INFORMS Service Science. He has served as a referee for various journals including Operations Research, Management Science, Manufacturing and Service Operations Management,Operations Research Letters, Naval Research Logistics, IIE Transactions,Operations Research for Healthcare, Production and Operations Management, Flexible Services and Manufacturing, IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering, and IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computation.

Dr. Saghafian has also served as a chair/co-chair or a review panel member in various committees including: INFORMS Pierskalla Award for the Best Paper in Healthcare, INFORMS Healthcare Applications Society Best Student Paper Award, INFORMS MSOM Healthcare Special Interest Group, INFORMS MSOM Best Student Paper review panel, POMS College of Healthcare Operations Management Best Paper Award, and the review panel for International Conference on Health Care Systems Engineering. Dr. Saghafian's research has been supported through various grants from National Science Foundation (NSF), Mayo Clinic, and Harvard University (HKS), among others.

Selected Publications

Academic Journal/Scholarly Articles

• Traub, Stephen J., M'Hamed Temkit, and Soroush Saghafian. "Emergency Department Holding Orders." Journal of Emergency Medicine 52.6 (June 2017): 885-893.
• Traub, Stephen J., Adam C. Bartley, Vernon D. Smith, Roshanak Didehban, Christopher A. Lipinski, and Soroush Saghafian. "Physician in Triage Versus Rotational Patient Assignment." The Journal of Emergency Medicine 50.5 (May 2016): 784-790.
• Saghafian, Soroush, and Mark P. Van Oyen. "Compensating for Dynamic Supply Disruptions: Backup Flexibility Design." Operations Research 64.2 (March-April 2016): 390-405.
• Saghafian, Soroush, and Michael H. Veatch. "A cµ Rule for Two-Tiered Parallel Servers." IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control 61.4 (April 2016): 1046-1050.
• Traub, Stephen J., Christopher F. Stewart, Roshanak Didehban, Adam C. Bartley, Soroush Saghafian, Vernon D. Smith, Scott M. Silvers, Ryan LeCheminant, and Christopher A. Lipinski. "Emergency Department Rotational Patient Assignment." Annals of Emergency Medicine 67.2 (February 2016): 206-215.
• Saghafian, Soroush, and Brian Tomlin. "The Newsvendor under Demand Ambiguity: Combining Data with Moment and Tail Information." Operations Research 64.1 (January-February 2016): 167-185.
• Boloori, Alireza, Soroush Saghafian, Harini A. Chakkera, and Curtiss B. Cook. "Characterization of Remitting and Relapsing Hyperglycemia in Post-Renal-Transplant Recipients." Public Library of Science PLOS ONE (November 9, 2015).
• Traub, Stephen J., Joseph P. Wood, James Kelley, David M. Nestler, Yu-Hui Chang, Soroush Saghafian, and Christopher A. Lipinski. "Emergency Department Rapid Medical Assessment: Overall Effect and Mechanistic Considerations." Journal of Emergency Medicine 48.5 (May 2015): 620-627.
• Saghafian, Soroush, Garrett Austin, and Stephen J. Traub. "Operations Research/Management Contributions to Emergency Department Patient Flow Optimization: Review and Research Prospects." IIE Transactions on Healthcare Systems Engineering 5.2 (2015): 101-123.

HKS Faculty Research Working Paper Series

Kilinc, Derya, Soroush Saghafian, and Stephen Traub. "Dynamic Assignment of Patients to Primary and Secondary Inpatient Units: Is Patience a Virtue?" HKS Faculty Research Working Paper Series RWP17-010, December 2016.