11/30/2017 | 4:15pm | E51-335

Reception to follow.

Jónas Jónasson

Assistant Professor
Sloan School of Management, MIT

Abstract: Community health workers (CHWs) are increasingly important to healthcare delivery in many African countries. Leveraging an extensive dataset featuring time, clinical findings, and GPS information for CHW visits in sub-Saharan Africa, we develop a stochastic model describing the health dynamics of a population served by a time-constrained CHW. Our model jointly captures the operational environment of the CHW through a continuous approximation logistical sub-model and population health outcomes through a Markov-Modulated Brownian Motion patient health sub-model. We report closed-form solutions quantifying the impact of CHW deployment on public health for a special case and build a heuristic to solve a policy maker´s CHW deployment problem. 

Bio: Jónas Oddur Jónasson, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Operations Management at the MIT Sloan School of Management. His primary research focus is on improving healthcare delivery in resource-limited settings. In particular, Jónas is interested in developing data-driven models describing the impact of operational implementation of healthcare delivery programs on disease progression and public health outcomes. In his research, Jónas has collaborated with a number of healthcare delivery organizations, including the Earth Institute, the Clinton Health Access Initiative, Riders For Health, and the London Ambulance Service.

Jónas received his BSc from the University of Iceland, an MSc from the London School of Economics and Political Science, an MPhil from the University of Cambridge, and a PhD in Management Science and Operations from London Business School.