Computational Approaches to Surgical Decision-Making

WEDNESDAYS @HARIRI

Jacob Nudel, General Surgery Resident at the Boston Medical Center and a Research Fellow at the Institute for Health System Innovation and Policy

When:
Wednesday, May 1, 2019
Event Start Time: 3:00 pm
Event End Time: 4:30 pm

Where:
Hariri Institute for Computing, Seminar Room, MCS 180

Abstract: Obesity and its associated diseases constitute a major public health threat for which bariatric surgery is the most effective available intervention. However, less than one percent of eligible patients undergo bariatric surgery. This talk will cover our efforts to understand and address underutilization surgical weight loss. Patients and primary care physicians regard surgical complications as a major reason for avoiding obesity surgery. First, I will discuss our application of machine learning algorithms to improve prediction of rare but devastating complications of bariatric surgery. Next, I will describe our ongoing analysis of the process by which patients move from primary care to subspecialty medicine and ultimately to bariatric surgery. Then, I will outline possible approaches to computationally model and digitally intervene upon the obesity care continuum.

Bio: Dr. Jacob Nudel is a General Surgery Resident and Boston Medical Center and a Research Fellow at the Institute for Health System Innovation and Policy. His current research is in surgical data science – an emerging interdisciplinary field that leverages computer science, decision analysis, and machine learning to improve interventional medicine. He studied anthropology at Bates College and attended Harvard Medical School.