ITA Post-Docs Honored at SMDM Conference

Peter Mueller, PhD, and Gian-Gabriel Garcia, PhD, received Lee B. Lusted Student Prizes given at the 42nd annual North American meeting of the Society for Medical Decision Making (SMDM).

Dr. Mueller, a post-doctoral research fellow at the ITA, received an award for Outstanding Presentations in Health Services, Outcomes, and Policy Research for his presentation on “Effect of Scaling up Medication for Opioid Use Disorder to Reduce Opioid Overdose Deaths in the United States. Drs. Chhatwal and Knudsen mentored Dr. Mueller on this project. He received his PhD and MA in Mathematics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and a BS in Math from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities

Dr. Garcia earned the SMDM Stephen Pauker Award for Outstanding Presentations in Quantitative Methods and Theoretical Developments for the topic: “The Value of Incorporating Symptom-Reporting Behavior in Optimal Treatment Decisions: An Application to Return-To-Play From Sports-Related Concussion.” He completed his research while at the University of Michigan and joined the ITA in 2020 as a post-doctoral research fellow working with Dr. Jalali. He received his PhD and MS in Industrial and Operations Engineering from the University of Michigan and his BS in Industrial Engineering from the University of Pittsburgh.

The award is given annually in memory of Lee B. Lusted, MD , a radiologist by training, and a driving force in developing the discipline of medical decision making and creating SMDM.