Publications
Working Papers
Imanirad, R., S. Saghafian, S.J. Traub (M.D.), and N.R. Hodgson. n.d. “What Drives Physician Efficiency? Evidence from Emergency Department Operations.” PDF
Rasouli, M., and S. Saghafian. n.d. “Robust Partially Observable Markov Decision Processes.” PDF
Song, L., and Saghafian. n.d. “The Spillover Effects of Hospital Closures on the Efficiency and Quality of Other Hospitals.” PDF
Saghafian, S., R. Imanirad, and S.J. Traub (M.D.). n.d. “Do Independent and Parallel Processing Physicians Influence Each Other’s Performance? Evidence from the Emergency Department.” PDF
Boloori, A., Saghafian, and S.J. Traub. n.d. “Understanding the Opioid Epidemic: Human-Based Versus Algorithmic-Based Perceptions, Treatments, and Guidelines.” PDF
Dean, A., A. Orfanoudaki, S. Saghafian, K. Song, H.A. Chakkera, and C.B. Cook. n.d. “Algorithm, Human, or the Centaur: How to Enhance Clinical Care?.” PDF
Shakeri, M., M. Bijvank, and S. Saghafian. n.d. “Who to See Next? Guiding Physicians With Time-Dependent Patient Selection Policies Under Shift Work.” PDF
Zhalechian, M., S. Saghafian, and O. Robles. n.d. “Harmonizing Safety and Speed: A Human-Algorithm Approach to Enhance the FDA’s Medical Device Clearance Policy.” PDF
Jameson, J., S. Saghafian, R. Huckman, N. Hodgson, and J. Baugh. n.d. “The Impact of Batching Advanced Imaging Tests in Emergency Departments.” PDF
Submitted
Delasay, M., and Saghafian S. 2026. “AI for Operational Efficiency in Virtual Care: An Operations-Focused Framework”. In . Springer. PDF
Forthcoming
Feizi, A., A. Orfanoudaki, S. Saghafian, Wayne Martini, and A. Hodgson. 2026. “Vertical Patient Streaming in Emergency Departments”. Management Science. PDF
“Harmonizing Safety and Speed: A Human-Algorithm Approach to Enchance FDA’s Medical Device Clearance Policy ”. 2025. Management Science . PDF
2025
Coots, M., S. Saghafian, D. Kent, and S. Goel. 2025. “A Framework for Considering the Value of Race and Ethnicity in Estimating Disease Risk”. Annals of Internal Medicine 178 (1): 98-107. PDF
Jameson, J., S. Saghafian, R.S. Huckman, and N.R. Hodgson. 2025. “Variation in Batch Ordering of Imaging Tests in the Emergency Department and the Impact on Care Delivery”. Health Services Research 60 (1): e14406. PDF
Lipschitz, J.M., S. Lin, S. Saghafian, C.K. Pike, and K.E. Burdick. 2025. “Digital Phenotyping in Bipolar Disorder: Using Longitudinal Fitbit Data and Personalized Machine Learning to Predict Mood Symptomatology”. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica 151 (3): 434-47. PDF
Paternina-Caicedo, A., O. Espinosa, S. Sheth, N. Hupert, and S. Saghafian. 2025. “Excess Mortality Rate in Black Children Since 1950 in the United States: A 70-Year Population-Based Study of Racial Inequalities”. Annals of Internal Medicine 178 (4): 490-97. PDF
Hodgson, N., S. Saghafian, W. Martini, A. Feizi, and A. Orfanoudaki. 2025. “Artificial Intelligence-Assisted Emergency Department Vertical Patient Flow Optimization”. Journal of Personalized Medicine 15 (6): 219. PDF
Saghafian, S. 2025. Insight-Driven Problem Solving: Analytics Science to Improve the World. New York: Cambridge University Press. PDF
Lin, S., S. Saghafian, J.M. Lipschitz, and K.E. Burdick. 2025. “A Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning Algorithm for Personalized Recommendations in Bipolar Disorder”. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS, Nexus) 4 (8). PDF
2024
Saghafian, S., D. Kilinic, and S.J. Traub. 2024. “Dynamic Assignment of Patients to Primary and Secondary Inpatient Units: Is Patience a Virtue?”. In The Cambridge Handbook of Healthcare: Productivity, Efficiency, Effectiveness, 2024:612-56. Cambridge University Press. PDF
Saghafian, S. 2024. “Ambiguous Dynamic Treatment Regimes: A Reinforcement Learning Approach”. Management Science 70 (9): 5667-90. PDF
Orfanoudaki, A., C.B. Cook, S. Saghafian, J. Castro, H.E. Kosiorek, and H.A. Chakkera. 2024. “Diabetes Mellitus and Blood Glucose Variability Increase the 30-Day Readmission Rate After Kidney Transplantation”. Clinical Transplantation 38 (1): e15177. PDF
Saghafian, S., and L. Idan. 2024. “Effective Generative AI: The Human-Algorithm Centaur”. Harvard Data Science Review Special Issue 5. PDF
Saghafian, S. 2024. “Drivers, Adaptations, and Public Impacts of Hospital Closures: Implications for Policy”. Frontiers in Public Health 12: 1415033. PDF
Tarantino, G., C. A. Ricker, A. Wang, L. J. Mickley . , S. Saghafian, . , and Liu D. 2024. “Genomic Heterogeneity and Ploidy Identify Patients With Intrinsic Resistance to PD-1 Blockade in Metastatic Melanoma”. Science Advances 10 (48): eadp4670. PDF
2023
Saghafian, S., N. Trichakis, R. Zhu, and H. Shih. 2023. “Joint Patient Selection and Scheduling under No-Shows: Theory and Application in Proton Therapy”. Production and Operations Management 32 (2): 547-63. PDF
Atkinson, M.K., and S. Saghafian. 2023. “Who Should See the Patient? On Deviations from Preferred Patient-Provider Assignments in Hospitals”. Health Care Management Science 26: 165–199. PDF
Boloori, A., and S. Saghafian. 2023. “Health and Economic Impacts of Lockdown Policies in the Early Stage of COVID-19 in the U.S.”. Service Science 15 (3): 188-211. PDF
Saghafian, S., L. Song, J. P. Newhouse, M. B. Landrum, and J. Hsu. 2023. “The Impact of Vertical Integration on Physician Behavior and Healthcare Delivery: Evidence from Gastroenterology Practices”. Management Science 69 (12): 7158-79. PDF
Hodgson, N.R., S. Saghafian, M.C. Klanderman, and S.J. Traub. 2023. “Physician-Driven Early Evaluation: Encounters Seen in a Vertical Model”. JEM Reports 2 (2): 100028.
2022
Saghafian, S., B.T. Tomlin, and S. Biller. 2022. “The Internet of Things and Information Fusion: Who Talks to Who?”. Manufacturing and Service Operations Management 24 (1): 333-51. PDF
Ang, Y.Q., A. Chia, and S. Saghafian. 2022. “Using Machine Learning to Demystify Startups Funding, Post-Money Valuation, and Success”. In Innovative Technology at the Interface of Finance and Operations. Vol. 11. Cham: Springer. PDF
Saghafian, L.D. Song, and A. S. Raja. 2022. “Towards a More Efficient Healthcare System: Opportunities and Challenges Caused by Hospital Closures Amid the COVID‑19 Pandemic”. Health Care Management Science 25: 187-90. PDF
2021
Munshi, V.N., S. Saghafian, C.B. Cook, S.V. Aradhyula, and H.A. Chakkera. 2021. “Use of Imputation and Decision Modeling to Improve Diagnosis and Management of Patients at Risk for New-Onset Diabetes After Transplantation”. Annals of Transplantation 26 (e928624): 1-9. PDF
Saghafian, S., and S.A. Murphy. 2021. “Innovative Health Care Delivery: The Scientific and Regulatory Challenges in Designing MHealth Interventions”. National Academy of Medicine. PDF
Hopp, Li, Saghafian, and G. Wang. 2021. “Employee Health Plans Powered by Analytics”. Management and Business Review 1 (3): 12-19. PDF
2020
Boloori, A., S. Saghafian, H.A. Chakkera (M.D.), and C.B. Cook (M.D.). 2020. “Data-Driven Management of Post-Transplant Medications: An Ambiguous Partially Observable Markov Decision Process Approach”. Manufacturing and Service Operations Management 22 (5): 1066-87. PDF
Saghafian, S., and W.J. Hopp. 2020. “Can Public Reporting Cure Healthcare? The Role of Quality Transparency in Improving Patient-Provider Alignment”. Operations Research 68 (1): 71-92. PDF
Munshi, V.N., S. Saghafian, C.B. Cook, D. Steidley, B. Hardaway, and H.A. Chakkera. 2020. “Incidence, Risk Factors, and Trends for Post-Heart Transplantation Diabetes Mellitus”. The American Journal of Cardiology 125 (3): 436-40. PDF
Munshi, V.N., S. Saghafian, C.B. Cook (M.D.), T.K. Werner, and H.A. Chakkera (M.D.). 2020. “Comparison of Post-Transplantation Diabetes Mellitus Incidence and Risk Factors Between Kidney and Liver Transplantation Patients”. PLOS ONE 15 (1): 1-12 (e0226873). PDF
S, Saghafian. 2020. “Curing the Healthcare System: Does Transparency Help?”. OR/MS/Today. PDF
2019
Bren, A., and S. Saghafian. 2019. “Data-Driven Percentile Optimization for Multi-Class Queueing Systems With Model Ambiguity: Theory and Application”. INFORMS Journal on Optimization 1 (4): 267-87. PDF
Saghafian, S., and W.J. Hopp. 2019. “The Role of Quality Transparency in Health Care: Challenges and Potential Solutions”. National Academy of Medicine. PDF
2018
Saghafian. 2018. “Ambiguous Partially Observable Markov Decision Processes: Structural Results and Applications”. Journal of Economic Theory 178: 1-35. PDF
Saghafian, W.J Hopp, S.M.R. Iravani, Y. Cheng, and D. Diermeier. 2018. “Workload Management in Telemedical Physician Triage and Other Knowledge-Based Service Systems”. Management Science 64 (11): 5180-97. PDF
Traub (M.D.), S.J., S. Saghafian, K. Judson (M.D.), C. Russi (M.D.), B. Madsen (M.D.), S. Cha (M.S), H.C. Tolson, L.D. Sanchez (M.D.), and J.M. Pines (M.D.). 2018. “Interphysician Differences in Emergency Department Length of Stay”. Journal of Emergency Medicine 54 (5): 702-10. PDF
Traub (M.D.), S.J., S. Saghafian, A.C. Bartley (M.D.), M.R. Buras (M.D.), C.F. Stewart (M.D.), and B.T. Kruse (M.D.). 2018. “The Durability of Operational Improvements With Rotational Patient Assignment”. American Journal of Emergency Medicine 36 (8): 1367-71. PDF
Hodgson (M.D.), N.R., S. Saghafian, L. Mi, M.R. Buras, E.D. Katz (M.D.), J.M. Pines (M.D.), L. Sanchez (M.D.), S. Silvers (M.D.), S.A. Maher (M.D.), and S.J. Traub (M.D.). 2018. “Are Testers Also Admitters? Comparing Emergency Physician Resource Utilization and Admitting Practices”. American Journal of Emergency Medicine 36 (10): 1865-69. PDF
2017
Traub (M.D.), S.J., M.H. Temkit, and S. Saghafian. 2017. “Emergency Department Holding Orders”. Journal of Emergency Medicine 52 (6): 885-93. PDF
Traub (M.D.), S.J., S. Saghafian, M.R. Buras, and M.H. Temkit. 2017. “Resource Utilization in Emergency Department Patients With Known or Suspected Poisoning”. Journal of Medical Toxicology 13 (3): 238-44. PDF
2016
Traub (M.D.), S.J, C. Stewart (M.D.), R. Didehban, A. Bartley, Saghafian, V. Smith (M.D.), S. Silvers (M.D.), R. LeCheminant, and C.A. Lipinski (M.D.). 2016. “Emergency Department Rotational Patient Assignment”. Annals of Emergency Medicine 67 (2): 206-15. PDF
Saghafian, S., and M.H. Veatch. 2016. “A Cμ Rule for Two-Tiered Parallel Servers”. IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control 61 (4): 1046-50. PDF
Saghafian, and M.P. Van Oyen. 2016. “Compensating for Dynamic Supply Disruptions: Backup Flexibility Design”. Operations Research 64 (2): 390-405. PDF
Saghafian, and B.T. Tomlin. 2016. “The Newsvendor under Demand Ambiguity: Combining Data With Moment and Tail Information”. Operations Research 64 (1): 167-85. PDF
Traub (M.D.), S.J, A. Bartley, R. Didehban, V. Smith (M.D.), C.A. Lipinski (M.D.), and Saghafian. 2016. “Physician in Triage versus Rotational Patient Assignment”. Journal of Emergency Medicine 50 (5): 784-90. PDF
2015
Traub (M.D.), S.J, C. Stewart (M.D.), R. Didehban, Nestler (M.D.), Y.H. Chang, Saghafian, and C.A. Lipinski (M.D.). 2015. “Emergency Department Rapid Medical Assessment: Overall Effect and Mechanistic Consideration”. Journal of Emergency Medicine 48 (5): 620-27. PDF
Saghafian, Austin, and Traub (M.D.). 2015. “Operations Research Management Contributions to Emergency Department Patient Flow Optimization: Review and Research Prospects”. IIE Transactions on Healthcare Systems Engineering 5 (2): 101-23. PDF
Boloori, Saghafian, H.A Chakkera (M.D.), and C.B Cook (M.D.). 2015. “Characterization of Remitting and Relapsing Hyperglycemia in Post-Renal Transplant Recipients”. PLoS ONE 10 (11): 1-16 (e0142363). PDF
2014 – 2005
Saghafian, and Chao. 2014. “The Impact of Operational Decisions on the Optimal Design of Salesforce Incentives”. Naval Research Logistics 61 (4): 320-40. PDF
Saghafian, W.J Hopp, M.P. Van Oyen, J.S. Desmond (M.D.), and S.L Kronick (M.D.). 2014. “Complexity-Augmented Triage: A Tool for Improving Patient Safety and Operational Efficiency”. Manufacturing and Service Operations Management (MSOM) 16 (3): 329-45. PDF
Li, Li, and Saghafian. 2013. “A Hybrid Manufacturing-Remanufacturing System With Random Remanufacturing Yield and Market Driven Product Acquisition”. IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management 60 (2): 424-437 (special issue on sustainability). PDF
Kim, Saghafian, and Van Oyen. 2013. “Joint Control of Production, Remanufacturing, and Disposal Activities in a Hybrid Manufacturing-Remanufacturing System”. European Journal of Operational Research 231 (2): 337-48. PDF
Saghafian, and M.P. Van Oyen. 2012. “The Value of Flexible Suppliers and Disruption Risk Information: Newsvendor Analysis With Recourse”. IIE Transactions 44 (10): 834-67. PDF
Saghafian, Hopp, Van Oyen, Desmond J.S, and Kronick. 2012. “Patient Streaming As a Mechanism for Improving Responsiveness in Emergency Departments”. Operations Research 60 (5): 1080-97. PDF
Saghafian, Van Oyen, and Kolfal. 2011. “The ‘W’ Network and the Dynamic Control of Unreliable Flexible Servers”. IIE Transactions 43 (12): 893-907. PDF
Saghafian, and Akbari. 2009. “Integrative Cell Formation and Layout Design In Cellular Manufacturing Systems”. Journal of Industrial and Systems Engineering 3 (2): 97-115. PDF
Saghafian, and Hejazi. 2005. “Multi-Criteria Group Decision Making Using A Modified Fuzzy TOPSIS Procedure”. IEEE Proc. , 215-21. PDF
Hejazi, and Saghafian. 2005. “Flowshop Scheduling Problems With Makespan Criterion: A Review”. International Journal of Production Research 43 (14): 2895-2929. PDF