Harvard Kennedy School faculty disseminate their research in working publications and papers that contribute to public knowledge and fuel policy innovation. This list features recent faculty publications, including journal articles, books, edited volumes, research papers, and public testimony.

Faculty Publications

Orfanoudaki, Agni, Curtiss B. Cook, Soroush Saghafian, Janna Castro, Heidi E. Kosiorek, Harini A. Chakkera. "Diabetes mellitus and blood glucose variability increases the 30-day readmission rate after kidney transplantation." Clinical Transplantation 38.1 (January 2024): e15177.
Saghafian, Soroush. "Is the Pursuit of Efficiency in Healthcare Worth the Gamble?" INFORMS OR/MS Today, December 6, 2023.
Saghafian, Soroush, Lina Song, Joseph Newhouse, Mary Beth Landrum, and John Hsu. "The Impact of Vertical Integration on Physician Behavior and Healthcare Delivery: Evidence from Gastroenterology Practices." Management Science 69.12 (December 2023): 7151-7882.
Jameson, Jacob, Soroush Saghafian, Robert S. Huckman, and Nicole Hodgson. "To Batch or Not to Batch: Test-Ordering Variability in the Emergency Department and the Impact on Care Delivery." HKS Faculty Research Working Paper Series RWP23-032, November 2023.
Saghafian, Soroush. "Effective Generative AI: The Human-Algorithm Centaur." HKS Faculty Research Working Paper Series RWP23-030, October 2023.
Saghafian, Soroush. "Ambiguous Dynamic Treatment Regimes: A Reinforcement Learning Approach." Management Science (2023).
Boloori, Alireza, and Soroush Saghafian. "Health and Economic Impacts of Lockdown Policies in the Early Stage of COVID-19 in the United States." Service Science 15.3 (September 2023): 188-211.
Coots, Madison, Soroush Saghafian, David Kent, and Sharad Goel. "Reevaluating the Role of Race and Ethnicity in Diabetes Screening." June 2023.
Atkinson, Mariam K., and Soroush Saghafian. "Who should see the patient? on deviations from preferred patient-provider assignments in hospitals." Health Care Management Science 26.2 (June 2023): 165-199.
Hodgson, Nicole R., Soroush Saghafian, Molly C. Klanderman, Andrej Urumov, Stephen J. Traub. "Physician-Driven Early Evaluation: Encounters Seen in a Vertical Model." Journal of Emergency Medicine Reports 2.2 (June 2023): 100028.
Feizi, Arshya, Agni Orfanoudaki, Soroush Saghafian, and Nicole Hodgson. "Vertical Patient Streaming in Emergency Departments." HKS Faculty Research Working Paper Series RWP23-014, May 2023.
Saghafian, Soroush, Nikolaos Trichakis, Ruihao Zhu, and Helen A. Shih. "Joint patient selection and scheduling under no-shows: Theory and application in proton therapy." Production and Operations Management 32.2 (February 2023): 547-563.
Boloori, Alireza, Soroush Saghafian, and Stephen J. Traub. "Understanding the Opioid Epidemic: Human-Based Versus Algorithmic-Based Perceptions, Treatments, and Guidelines." HKS Faculty Research Working Paper Series RWP22-026, December 2022.
Orfanoudaki, Agni, Soroush Saghafian, Karen Song, Harini A. Chakkera, and Curtiss B. Cook. "Algorithm, Human, or the Centaur: How to Enhance Clinical Care?" HKS Faculty Research Working Paper Series RWP22-027, December 2022.
Saghafian, Soroush. "Ambiguous Dynamic Treatment Regimes: A Reinforcement Learning Approach." HKS Faculty Research Working Paper Series RWP21-034, December 2022.
Atkinson, Mariam K., and Soroush Saghafian. "Who Should See the Patient? On Deviations from Preferred Patient-Provider Assignments in Hospitals." HKS Faculty Research Working Paper Series RWP19-037, November 2022.
Saghafian, Soroush, Linda D. Song, Joseph P. Newhouse, Mary Beth Landrum, and John Hsu. "The Impact of Vertical Integration on Physician Behavior and Healthcare Delivery: Evidence from Gastroenterology Practices." HKS Faculty Research Working Paper Series RWP20-031, November 2022.
Saghafian, Soroush, Derya Kilinc, and Stephen J. Traub. "Dynamic Assignment of Patients to Primary and Secondary Inpatient Units: Is Patience a Virtue?" HKS Faculty Research Working Paper Series RWP17-010, August 2022.
Saghafian, Soroush, Lina D. Song, and Ali S. Raja. "Towards a more efficient healthcare system: Opportunities and challenges caused by hospital closures amid the COVID-19 pandemic." Health Care Management Science 25 (June 2022).
Saghafian, Soroush, Brian Tomlin, and Stephan Biller. "The Internet of Things and Information Fusion: Who Talks to Who?" Manufacturing & Service Operations Management 24.1 (January-February 2022): 333-351.
Hopp, Wallace, Jun Li, Soroush Saghafian, and Guihua Wang. "Employee Health Plans Powered by Analytics." Management and Business Review 1.3 (2021).
Saghafian, Soroush, and Susan A. Murphy. "Innovative Healthcare Delivery: The Scientific and Regulatory Challenges in Designing mHealth Interventions." National Academy of Medicine (August 2021).
Munshi, Vidit N., Soroush Saghafian, Curtiss B. Cook, Sumhith Veda Aradhyula, and Harini A. Chakkera. "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 (2021).
Saghafian, Soroush, Raha Imanirad, and Stephen J. Traub. "Do Independent and Parallel Processing Physicians Influence Each Other's Performance? Evidence from the Emergency Department." HKS Faculty Research Working Paper Series RWP19-018, June 2021.
Ang, Yu Qian, Andrew Chia, and Soroush Saghafian. "Using Machine Learning to Demystify Startups’ Funding, Post-Money Valuation, and Success." Innovative Technology at the Interface of Finance and Operations. Ed. Volodymyr Babich, John R. Birge, and Hilary Gilles. Springer, Cham, 2022, 271-296.
Ang, Yu Qian, Andrew Chia, and Soroush Saghafian. "Using Machine Learning to Demystify Startups’ Funding, Post-Money Valuation, and Success." Innovative Technology at the Interface of Finance and Operations. Ed. Volodymyr Babich, John R. Birge, and Gilles Hilary. Springer, 11 May 2021, 271-296.
Song, Lina, and Soroush Saghafian. "The Spillover Effects of Hospital Closures on the Efficiency and Quality of Other Hospitals." HKS Faculty Research Working Paper Series RWP19-006, April 2021.
Boloori, Alireza, Soroush Saghafian, Harini A. Chakkera, and Curtiss B. Cook. "Data-Driven Management of Post-Transplant Medications: An Ambiguous Partially Observable Markov Decision Process Approach." Manufacturing and Service Operations Management 22.5 (October 2020): 1066-1087.
Ang, Yu Qian, Andrew Chia, and Soroush Saghafian. "Using Machine Learning to Demystify Startups Funding, Post-Money Valuation, and Success." HKS Faculty Research Working Paper Series RWP20-028, August 2020.
Boloori, Alireza, and Soroush Saghafian. "Health and Economic Impacts of Lockdown Policies in the Early Stage of COVID-19 in the U.S." HKS Faculty Research Working Paper Series RWP20-027, August 2020.
Boloori, Alireza, and Soroush Saghafian. "COVID-19: What Intervention Policies Are Most Effective? A Brief Report Using Data from Government of Bahrain." HKS Faculty Research Working Paper Series RWP20-011, May 2020.
Munshi, Vidit N., Soroush Saghafian, Curtiss B. Cook, Eric Steidley, Brian Hardaway, and Harini A. Chakkera. "Incidence, Risk Factors, and Trends for Postheart Transplantation Diabetes Mellitus." The American Journal of Cardiology 125.3 (February 2020): 436-440.
Munshi, Vidit N., Soroush Saghafian, Curtiss B. Cook, K. Tuesday Werner, and Harini A. Chakkera. "Comparison of Post-Transplantation Diabetes Mellitus Incidence and Risk Factors Between Kidney and Liver Transplantation Patient." PLOS ONE 15.1 (January 2020): 1-12.
Saghafian, Soroush, and Wallace J. Hopp. "Can Public Reporting Cure Healthcare? The Role of Quality Transparency in Improving Patient-Provider Alignment." Operations Research 68.1 (January 2020).
Saghafian, Soroush, and Wallace J. Hopp. "The Role of Quality Transparency in Health Care: Challenges and Potential Solutions." National Academy of Medicine, November 18, 2019.
Saghafian, Soroush, Nikolaos Trichakis, Ruihao Zhu, and Helen A. Shih. "Joint Patient Selection and Scheduling under No-Shows: Theory and Application in Proton Therapy." HKS Faculty Research Working Paper Series RWP19-019, May 2019.
Bren, Austin, and Soroush Saghafian. "Data-Driven Percentile Optimization for Multi-Class Queueing Systems with Model Ambiguity: Theory and Application." INFORMS Journal on Optimization 1.4 (April 2019): 267-287.
Saghafian, Soroush. "Ambiguous Partially Observable Markov Decision Processes: Structural Results and Applications." Journal of Economic Theory 178 (November 2018): 1-35.
Hodgson, Nicole R., Souroush Saghafian, Lanyu Mi, Matthew R. Buras, Eric D. Katz, Jesse M. Pines, Leon Sanchez, Scott Silvers, Steven A. Maher, and Stephen J. Traub. "Are Testers Also Admitters? Comparing Emergency Physician Resource Utilization and Admitting Practices." Journal of Emergency Medicine 36.10 (October 2018): 1865-1869.
Saghafian, Soroush, Raha Imanirad, and Stephen J. Traub. "Who is an Efficient and Effective Physician? Evidence from Emergence Medicine." HKS Faculty Research Working Paper Series RWP18-029, September 2018.
Rasouli, Mohammad, and Soroush Saghafian. "Robust Partially Observable Markov Decision Processes." HKS Faculty Research Working Paper Series RWP18-027, September 2018.
Traub, Stephen J., Soroush Saghafian, Adam C. Bartley, Matthew R. Buras, Christopher F. Stewart, and Brian T.Kruse. "The Durability of Operational Improvements with Rotational Patient Assignment." The American Journal of Emergency Medicine 36.8 (August 2018): 1367-1371.
Traub, Stephen J., Soroush Saghafian, Kurtis Judson, Christopher Russi, Bo Madsen, Stephen Cha, Hannah C. Tolson, Leon D. Sanchez, and Jesse M. Pines. "Interphysician Differences in Emergency Department Length of Stay." Journal of Emergency Medicine 54.5 (May 2018): 702-710.
Saghafian, Soroush, Brian Tomlin, and Stephan Biller. "The Internet of Things and Information Fusion: Who Talks to Who?" HKS Faculty Research Working Paper Series RWP18-009, February 2018.
Bren, Austin, and Soroush Saghafian. "Data-Driven Percentile Optimization for Multi-Class Queueing Systems with Model Ambiguity: Theory and Application." HKS Faculty Research Working Paper Series RWP18-008, February 2018.
Saghafian, Soroush, Wallace J. Hopp, Seyed M.R. Iravani, Yao Cheng, and Daniel Diermeier. "Workload Management in Telemedical Physician Triage and Other Knowledge-Based Service Systems." Management Science 64.11 (February 2018): 5180-5197.
Saghafian, Soroush, and Wallace J. Hopp. "Can Public Reporting Cure Healthcare? The Role of Quality Transparency in Improving Patient-Provider Alignment." HKS Faculty Research Working Paper Series RWP17-044, November 2017.
Boloori, Alireza, Soroush Saghafian, Harini A. A. Chakkera, and Curtiss B. Cook. "Data-Driven Management of Post-Transplant Medications: An APOMDP Approach." HKS Faculty Research Working Paper Series RWP17-036, August 2017.
Saghafian, Soroush, Wallace J. Hopp, Seyed M. R. Iravani, Yao Cheng, and Daniel Diermeier. "Workload Management in Telemedical Physician Triage and Other Knowledge-Based Service Systems." HKS Faculty Research Working Paper Series RWP17-035, August 2017.
Traub, Stephen J., M'Hamed Temkit, and Soroush Saghafian. "Emergency Department Holding Orders." Journal of Emergency Medicine 52.6 (June 2017): 885-893.