Staff Profile

Dr. Mohammad Jalali (aka, ‘MJ’) is an Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School and a senior scientist at MGH Institute for Technology Assessment. He was previously a research faculty at MIT Sloan School of Management and a consultant at the World Bank. MJ uses analytics and simulation-based approaches to help policymakers identify and develop high-leverage policies that not only are effective over the long haul, but also are not thwarted by unanticipated side effects. To achieve this goal, he spends a great deal of time working with decision-makers and policymakers, doing fieldwork and collecting different types of data that can inform richer models and analyses.

MJ’s work has been featured by various national and international media outlets, including Associated Press, The Hill, Newsweek, Scientific American, Business Insider, and NPR. He is an associate editor of System Dynamics Review and is on the editorial board of the Journal on Policy and Complex Systems. He is the recipient of the 2015 Dana Meadows Award, the 2015 WINFORMS Excellence Award, and the 2014 Lupina Young Researcher Award. MJ received his PhD in Systems Engineering, with a concentration on management and health care systems, from Virginia Tech in 2015.

Research approach and areas:

In his research trajectory, MJ follows three goals. First, he conducts simulation modeling and informatics research for various population-based health policies, focusing on health outcomes and cost-effectiveness. In his modeling research—drawn on theories of optimization and strategy—he analyzes the impacts of large-scale policies for prevention, screening, and treatment. MJ has developed models for obesity, post-traumatic stress disorder, and depression. He is currently working with the FDA to develop an opioid systems model, informing opioid policies at the FDA and other government agencies. Other areas of his modeling research include drug-shortages in pharmaceutical supply chains, organizational cybersecurity in health care, and the diffusion of medical technologies.

Second, MJ focuses his research on mechanisms that connect human decision-making to health care systems, because that is where many important policy-resistant problems lie. In particular, he aims to understand how and why many health policies fail to produce lasting results or create results counter to their goals.

Third, he wants his research to rigorously connect models with quantitative data. The growing complexity of health care issues, combined with the ubiquity of large amounts of data, requires increasingly sophisticated analytical methods. MJ complements his phenomenological research with methodological contributions that build bridges across methodological and application domains. For example, he has contributed to adapting various simulation-optimization approaches for model calibration and parameter estimation in dynamic models (e.g., the method of simulated moments and indirect inference), improving systematic review techniques, and developing a novel method for aggregation of prior stochastic and heterogeneous statistical findings.

Selected media coverage:

New York Times: Will Hot Weather Kill the Coronavirus Where You Live?
Washington Post: Summer weather could help fight coronavirus spread but won’t halt the pandemic

Visit web site

Selected Publications

Stringfellow, Erin J; Dong, Huiru; Khatami, Seyedeh Nazanin; Lee, Hannah; Jalali, Mohammad S

The association between buprenorphine doses above 16 milligrams and treatment retention in a multi-payer national sample in the United States, 2014 to 2021 Journal Article

In: Addiction, vol. 120, iss. 6, pp. 1198-1206, 2025, ISSN: 1360-0443.

Abstract | Links | BibTeX

Pan, Fenglian; Zhou, You; Vivas-Valencia, Carolina; Kong, Nan; Ott, Carol; Jalali, Mohammad S; Liu, Jian

Modeling opioid overdose events recurrence with a covariate-adjusted triggering point process Journal Article

In: PLoS Comput Biol, vol. 21, no. 5, pp. e1012889, 2025, ISSN: 1553-7358.

Abstract | Links | BibTeX

Dong, Huiru; Stringfellow, Erin J; Jalali, Mohammad S

State-level racial and ethnic disparities in buprenorphine treatment duration in the United States Journal Article

In: Am J Addict, vol. 34, no. 1, pp. 69-74, 2025, ISSN: 1521-0391.

Abstract | Links | BibTeX

Lee, Hannah; Otero-Leon, Daniel; Dong, Huiru; Stringfellow, Erin J; Jalali, Mohammad S

Uncovering Patterns in Overdose Deaths: An Analysis of Spike Identification in Fatal Drug Overdose Data in Massachusetts, 2017-2023 Journal Article

In: Public Health Rep, pp. 333549241299613, 2024, ISSN: 1468-2877.

Abstract | Links | BibTeX

Lim, Tse Yang; Dong, Huiru; Stringfellow, Erin; Hasgul, Zeynep; Park, Ju; Glos, Lukas; Kazemi, Reza; Jalali, Mohammad S.

Temporal and spatial trends of fentanyl co-occurrence in the illicit drug supply in the United States: a serial cross-sectional analysis Journal Article

In: The Lancet Regional Health - Americas, vol. 39, 2024, ISSN: 2667-193X.

Links | BibTeX

Hasgul, Zeynep; Spanjaart, Anne; Javed, Sumreen; Akhavan, Ali; Kersten, Marie José; Jalali, Mohammad S

Health-related quality of life dynamics: modeling insights from immunotherapy Journal Article

In: Qual Life Res, 2024, ISSN: 1573-2649.

Abstract | Links | BibTeX

Wongseree, Peeradon; Hasgul, Zeynep; Jalali, Mohammad S

Cost-Effectiveness of Increasing Access to Colorectal Cancer Diagnosis: Analysis From Thailand Journal Article

In: Value Health Reg Issues, vol. 43, pp. 101010, 2024, ISSN: 2212-1102.

Abstract | Links | BibTeX

Dong, Huiru; Stringfellow, Erin J; Russell, Alton; Jalali, Mohammad S

State Mandates On Naloxone Coprescribing Associated With Short-Term Increase In Naloxone Codispensing Journal Article

In: Health Aff (Millwood), vol. 43, no. 9, pp. 1319–1328, 2024, ISSN: 2694-233X.

Abstract | Links | BibTeX

Lim, Tse Yang; Keyes, Katherine M; Caulkins, Jonathan P; Stringfellow, Erin J; Cerdá, Magdalena; Jalali, Mohammad S

Improving Estimates of the Prevalence of Opioid Use Disorder in the United States: Revising Keyes et al Journal Article

In: J Addict Med, vol. 18, no. 6, pp. 705-710, 2024, ISSN: 1935-3227.

Abstract | Links | BibTeX

Dong, Huiru; Stringfellow, Erin J; Russell, W Alton; Bearnot, Benjamin; Jalali, Mohammad S

Impact of Alternative Ways to Operationalize Buprenorphine Treatment Duration on Understanding Continuity of Care for Opioid Use Disorder Journal Article

In: Int J Ment Health Addict, vol. 22, no. 4, pp. 2285–2290, 2024, ISSN: 1557-1874.

Links | BibTeX