BALTIMORE, MD, May 20, 2024 – The Analytics Society of INFORMS, the largest association for the decision and data sciences, Executive sponsor BCG X and Academic sponsor Adelphi University announce the 2024 Innovative Applications in Analytics Award (IAAA) is awarded to a team representing Purdue University and Indiana University in partnership with Indiana University Health (IUH). The IAAA recognizes the creative and innovative application of combined analytics techniques to create economic or social value. The 2024 winners are being honored for deploying an advanced analytics-driven decision support solution (DSS) to support the novel practice of mobilizing resource nurses across 16 U.S. hospitals.
The team's aim was to reduce staffing shortages and harm events, improve patient care and increase retention for nurses through improved working conditions. The DSS combines state-of-the-art generative AI models with multi-stage reinforcement learning, creating a framework that handles both forecasting and decision optimization in environments with complex spatial-temporal relationships. The DSS provides multi-tiered recommendations, including resource nurse on-call lists, real-time redeployment between hospitals and future hiring decisions. In a pilot conducted from May to June 2023, understaffing was reduced by a remarkable 17%, with estimated annual savings of $2.5-$3.5 million in IUH alone, with more than $1.5 billion projected savings if adopted on a national scale.
The second place for the award went to a team representing the University of Toronto, University of Ottawa, Rogers Hixon Ontario Human Milk Bank and National University of Singapore, for their submission, "Optimizing Milk Pools at the Rogers Hixon Ontario Human Milk Bank." Third place was awarded to a team representing IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center for its submission titled, "Policy Learning Utilizing Counterfactuals with an Application to the Dynamic Pricing of Airline Ancillaries."
The winning teams were announced at the IAAA recognition luncheon that took place during the 2024 INFORMS Analytics Conference in Orlando, Florida.
Click here for more information about the 2024 IAAA competition.
About INFORMS
As the largest professional association for the data and decision sciences, INFORMS members leverage mathematics and scientific methodologies to help organizations and governments at all levels make better, data-driven decisions. With more than 12,000 professional and student members from around the world, INFORMS members support organizations and governments at all levels as they work to transform data into information, and information into insights that save lives, save money and solve problems.
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Contact:
Ashley Smith, Public Affairs Coordinator, INFORMS
443-757-3578
asmith@informs.org
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Erick Wikum
Analytics Consultant, Wikalytics, LLC
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