A sizable group of students, faculty and alumni representing the HSRP&A PhD program’s health decision sciences track made a splash at the 36^th North American Society of Medical Decision Making (SMDM) meeting in Miami, Fla., Oct. 18-22.

Karen Kuntz, professor and director of graduate studies, led the group and received the 2014 Eugene L. Saenger Award for Distinguished Service for her leadership and contributions to the scientific and educational activities of the society. Kuntz teaches and advises students in health decision sciences. She was joined by Eva Enns, assistant professor, who also advises students in the specialty track.

PhD student Fernando Alarid-Escudero received the Lee B. Lusted Student Prize for outstanding student research presentation in quantitative methods and theoretical development. The award was based on his research poster titled, “Calibration of piecewise Markov models using a Bayesian change-point analysis through an iterative convex optimization algorithm.” He authored this research with Karen Kuntz, Eva Enns, and Associate Professor Richard MacLehose from the Division of Epidemiology & Community Health.

Among attendees, the following individuals presented research posters, gave presentations and led short courses:

Students

• Fernando Alarid-Escudero, PhD student: lead author, two posters; co-author, two posters; co-instructor, short course with Hawre Jalal, PhD ‘13.
• Jordan Hinahara, PhD student: lead author, poster.
• Rowan Iskandar, PhD student: podium co-author.
• Kyu Eun Lee, MS student: lead author, poster.
• Tzeyu Michaud Lin, PhD student: lead author, two posters.
• Marc Vacquier, PhD student: lead author, poster.

Faculty

• Eva Enns, assistant professor: co-author, four posters.
• Karen Kuntz, professor: podium lead author; co-author, six posters.

Alumni

• Hawre Jalal, PhD ‘13, lead author, poster; podium co-author, co-instructor, short course with Fernando Alarid, PhD student.
• Shiyi Wang, PhD, ‘12: podium lead author.

About the HSRP&A PhD program’s health decision sciences track: The concentration in decision sciences prepares students for research careers that involve the application of these methods to public health and clinical problems.

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~ Post by Mona Rath