Media Coverage

In the U.S. prison system, the prevalence of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is currently 10 times higher than the national average. And while new HCV treatment drugs are very effective, their high cost along with very limited healthcare budget in prisons impedes universal treatment in prisons. Now, new research in the INFORMS journal Operations Research, has identified new protocols that could substantially decrease HCV infection in the U.S. prison system. 

New research in the INFORMS journal Management Science took an in-depth look at 128 events of negative publicity tied to a celebrity endorser between 1988 and 2016. These events affected sponsors in 230 actual cases. What gives the research its punch is that it evaluated the effectiveness of company responses to celebrity endorsers’ misbehaviors using those companies’ daily abnormal stock returns. In other words, if a brand encountered a celebrity endorser crisis, as Nike did when Tiger Woods made news over his notorious marital problems, the study authors took into account the surrounding negative publicity’s impact on the company’s stock price.

INFORMS member, professor with the University of Buffalo and Buffalo Bills football fan Mark Karwan's research to outline a mathematical approach by which the NFL could potentially produce a materially fair and largely disparity-free schedule, has led to a three-year research grant with the NFL to provide year-round method development and schedule testing. 

INFORMS Fellow Eva Lee, professor with Georgia Tech's H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering, has been inducted into the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) College of Fellows. Lee is the first I.E./O.R. engineer to be nominated and elected for this honor. 

The limited resources available for correctional health services guarantees that many incarcerated individuals with the hepatitis C virus (HCV) will not have access to the newer drug treatments that have revolutionized HCV care. A study in the INFORMS journal Operations Research suggests that the method many prison systems have used to decide who will get HCV treatment and who won't does not represent the most effective use of limited treatment capacity.