Carri W. Chan Cain Brothers and Company Professor of Healthcare Management Faculty Director, Healthcare and Pharmaceutical Management Program Columbia Business School Henry R. Kravis Hall, Room 921 665 W 130th Street, New York, NY 10027 Email: cwchan AT columbia DOT edu Phone: (212)854-1609 Web: http://www.columbia.edu/~cc3179 Curriculum Vitae

About Me

My primary research interests are in data-driven modeling of complex stochastic systems, dynamic optimization, and queueing with applications in health-care operations management. My work combines empirical approaches with mathematical modeling to develop evidence-based approaches to improving healthcare delivery. I have worked closely with providers and administrators at numerous health systems including Columbia University Irving Medical Center, Geisinger Health Systems, Montefiore Medical Center, Northern California Kaiser Permanente, and Weill Cornell Medical Center. I completed my PhD in Electrical Engineering at Stanford University. I did my undergraduate studies at MIT.

In my role as Faculty Director of the HPM Program, I oversee Columbia Business School's curriculum and extracurricular activities that are aimed to support our students and alumni who are interested in careers within the healthcare industry. If you are interested in learning more about the HPM Program, please email [email protected].

Publications

• Working Papers:
  1. A. Bartel, C. W. Chan, M. Park, P. C. Wu, F. Zheng. The Impact of Senior Living Facilities on Medicare Spending.
  2. J. Qin, C. W. Chan, J. Dong. Mitigating Service Incompletion via Sunk Costs: A Queueing Approach.
  3. Y. Chen, C. W. Chan, J. Dong, S. Rossetti. The Impact of Historical Workload on Nurses' Perceived Workload.
  4. J. Grand-Clement, C. W. Chan, V. Goyal, E. Chuang, Interpretable Machine Learning for Resource Allocation with Application to Ventilator Triage
  5. Y. Shen, C. W. Chan, F. Zheng, G. Escobar, Structural Estimation of Intertemporal Externalities in ICU Admission Decisions
  • Y. Shen: Second Place 2021 INFORMS Health Applications Society Student Paper Competition
• Published Journal Papers:
  1. M. Park, C. W. Chan, K. Boell, E. Mitchell, A. Tariq, D. Vawdrey. Machine Learning-Guided Cancer Screening: The Benefits of Proactive Care, MSOM, (to appear).
  • Winner 2025 POMS College of Healthcare Operations Management (CHOM) Best Paper Competition
  • Honorable Mention 2025 MSOM Practice-Based Research Competition
  2. Y. Shen, C. W. Chan, F. Zheng, M. Argenziano, P. Kurlansky, The Impact of Surgeon Daily Workload and its Implications for Operating Room Scheduling, Production and Operations Management, (to appear)
     • Finalist 2021 INFORMS Service Science Best Cluster Paper Award
  3. J. Qin, C. W. Chan, J. Dong, S. Homma, S. Ye. Waiting Online versus In-Person in Outpatient Clinics: An Empirical Study on Visit Incompletion, MSOM, 2025.
  • J. Qin: Finalist 2023 INFORMS Health Application Society Student Paper Competition
  • J. Qin: Finalist 2023 Service Science Best Student Paper Award
  4. Y. Hu, C. W. Chan, J. Dong, A. Kazekjian, C. Ophaswongae, G. Sugalski, J. P. Underwood, R. Perotte. Implementing a Prediction Driven Framework for Emergency Department Nurse Staffing to Optimize Real Time Decisions, npj Health Systems, 2025.
  5. Y. Hu, C. W. Chan, J. Dong. Prediction-Driven Surge Planning with Application in the Emergency Department, Management Science, 2025.
  • Y. Hu: Finalist 2022 INFORMS Doing Good with Good OR Award
  6. Y. Chen, C. W. Chan, J. Dong, E. Jackson, N. Yip, S. Rossetti. Beyond Order-Based Nursing Workload: A Retrospective Cohort Study in Intensive Care Units, Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 2024.
  7. J. Qin, C. W. Chan, J. Dong, S. Homma, S. Ye, Telemedicine is associated with reduced socioeconomic disparities in outpatient clinic no-show rates, Journal of Telemedicine and Telecare, 2023.
  8. Y. Hu, K. D. Cato, C. W. Chan, J. Dong, N. Gavin, S. C. Rossetti, B. P. Chang, Use of Real-Time Information to Predict Future Arrivals in the Emergency Department, Annals of Emergency Medicine, 2023.
  9. J. Grand-Clement, C. W. Chan, V. Goyal, G. Escobar, Robustness of Proactive Intensive Care Unit Transfer Policies, Operations Research, 2023.
  10. N. Zychlinski, C. W. Chan, J. Dong, Managing Queues with Different Resource Requirements, Operations Research, 2023.
  11. C. W. Chan, V. Sarhangian, P. Talwai, K. Gogia. Utilizing Partial Flexibility to Improve Emergency Department Flow: Theory and Implementation, Naval Research Logistics, 2022.
  12. E. Chuang, J. Grand-Clement, J-T. Chen, C. W. Chan, V. Goyal, M. N. Gong, Quantifying utilitarian outcomes to inform triage ethics: Simulated performance of a ventilator triage protocol under Sars-CoV-2 pandemic surge conditions, AJOB Empirical Bioethics, 2022.
  13. Y. Hu, C. W. Chan, J. Dong, Optimal Scheduling of Proactive Service with Customer Deterioration and Improvement Management Science, 2022.
      • Finalist 2024 MSOM Service Management SIG Best Paper Award
      • Y. Hu: Finalist 2019 IBM Best Student Paper competition
  14. H. B. Gershengorn, Y. Hu, J.-T. Chen, S. J. Hsieh, J. Dong, M. N. Gong, C. W. Chan, The Impact of High-Flow Nasal Cannula Use on Patient Mortality and the Availability of Mechanical Ventilators in COVID-19, Annals of the American Thoracic Society, 2021.
  15. G. Yom-Tov, C. W. Chan. Balancing admission control, speedup, and waiting in service systems Queueing Systems, 2021.
  16. C. W. Chan, M. Huang, V. Sarhangian, Dynamic Server Assignment in Multiclass Queues with Shifts, with Applications to Nurse Staffing in Emergency Departments Operations Research, 2021.
  17. S. Lekwijit, C. W. Chan, L. V. Green, V. X. Liu, G. J. Escobar, The Impact of Step-Down Unit Care on Patient Outcomes After Intensive Care Unit Discharge. Critical Care Explorations, 2020.
  18. A. P. Bartel, C. W. Chan, S.-H. Kim, Should Hospitals Keep Their Patients Longer? The Role of Inpatient Care in Reducing Post-Discharge Mortality, Management Science, 2020
  19. H. B. Gershengorn, C. W. Chan, H. Sun, Y. Xu, M. Armony, R. Levi, M. N. Gong. The Impact of Opening a Medical Step-Down Unit on Medically Critically Ill Patient Outcomes and Throughput: A Difference-in-Differences Analysis, Journal of Intensive Care Medicine, 2018.
  20. W. Hu, C. W. Chan, J. R. Zubizarreta, G. J. Escobar. Incorporating Longitudinal Comorbidity and Acute Physiology Data in Template Matching for Assessing Hospital Quality: an Exploratory Study in an Integrated Health Care Delivery System, Medical Care, 2018.
  21. M. Armony, C. W. Chan, B. Zhu, Critical Care Capacity Management: Understanding the role of a Step Down Unit, Production and Operations Management, 2018.
  22. C. W. Chan, L. V. Green, L. Lu, S. Lekwijit, G. Escobar, Assessing the Impact of Service Level when Customer Needs are Uncertain: An Empirical Investigation of Hospital Step-Down Units, Management Science, 2018.
  23. W. Hu, C. W. Chan, J. R. Zubizarreta, G. J. Escobar, An Examination of Early Transfers to the ICU Based on a Physiologic Risk Score, MSOM, 2018.
      • Honorable Mention 2021 MSOM Responsible Research Award
      • Runner-up Industry Studies Association 2019 Ralph Gomory Best Industry Studies Paper Award
      • Runner-up 2017 INFORMS Pierskalla Award for the Best Paper in Healthcare
      • W. Hu: Finalist 2017 MSOM Student Paper Competition
  24. N. Master, C. W. Chan, N. Bambos, Myopic Policies For Non-Preemptive Scheduling Of Jobs With Decaying Value, Probability in the Engineering and Informational Sciences, 2018.
  25. C. W. Chan, V. F. Farias, G. Escobar, The Impact of Delays on Service Times in the Intensive Care Unit, Management Science 2017.
  26. C. W. Chan, J. Dong, L. V. Green, Queues with Time-Varying Arrivals and Inspections with Applications to Hospital Discharge Policies, Operations Research 2017.
  27. H. B. Gershengorn, Y. Xu, C. W. Chan, M. Armony, M. N. Gong, The Impact of Adding a Physician Assistant to a Critical Care Outreach Team, PLOSOne 2016.
  28. S.-H. Kim, C. W. Chan, M. Olivares, G. Escobar, Association Among ICU Congestion, ICU Admission Decision, and Patient Outcomes, Critical Care Medicine 2016.
  29. K. Xu, C. W. Chan, Using Future Information to Reduce Waiting Times in the Emergency Department via Diversion, MSOM 2016.
  30. C. W. Chan, M. Armony, N. Bambos. Maximum Weight Matching with Hysteresis in Overloaded Queues with Setups, Queueing Systems 2016.
  31. S.-H. Kim, C. W. Chan, M. Olivares, G. Escobar, ICU Admission Control: An Empirical Study of Capacity Allocation and its Implication on Patient Outcomes, Management Science 2015.
      • Winner 2018 Management Science Best OM paper award
      • Finalist 2013 INFORMS Pierskalla Award for the Best Paper in Healthcare
      • S.-H. Kim: Finalist 2013 INFORMS Health Applications Society Student Paper Competition
      • S.-H. Kim: First Place 2013 MSOM Student Paper Competition
  32. C. W. Chan, G. Yom-Tov, G. Escobar, When to use Speedup: An Examination of Service Systems with Returns, Operations Research 2014.
      • Second Place: INFORMS 2012 JFIG best paper competition
  33. C. W. Chan, L. V. Green, Y. Lu, N. Leahy, R. Yurt. Prioritizing Burn-Injured Patients During a Disaster, MSOM 2013. (Excel-based Triage tool)
      • Finalist: 2016 M&SOM Best paper award
      • First place: 2011 INFORMS Section on Public Programs, Services and Needs (SPPSN) best paper competition
  34. C. W. Chan, N. Bambos, J. Singh, Network Assisted Mobile Computing with Optimal Uplink Query Processing, IEEE Trans. on Mobile Computing 2013.
  35. C. W. Chan, V. F. Farias, N. Bambos, G. Escobar, Optimizing ICU Discharge Decisions with Patient Readmissions, Operations Research 2012.
  36. N. E. Leahy, R. W. Yurt, E. J. Lazar, A. A. Villacara, A. C. Rabbitts, L. Berger, C. Chan, L. Chertoff, K. M. Conlon, A. Cooper, L. V. Green, B. Greenstein, Y. Lu, S. Miller, F. P. Mineo, D. Pruitt, D. S. Ribaudo, C. Ruhren, S. H. Silber, L. Soloff, Burn Disaster Response Planning in New York City: Updated Recommendations for Best Practices, Journal of Burn Care & Research 2012.
  37. A. Dua, C. W. Chan, N. Bambos, J. Apostolopoulos, Channel, deadline, and distortion aware scheduling of video streams over wireless, IEEE Trans. on Wireless Communications 2010.
      • Best Journal Paper of the Year, IEEE Multimedia Communications TC
  38. C. W. Chan, V. F. Farias Stochastic depletion problems: Effective myopic policies for a class of dynamic optimization problems, Mathematics of Operations Research 2009
  39. C. W. Chan, N. Bambos, S. Wee, J. Apostolopoulos,Scheduling Algorithms for Broadcasting Media with Multiple Distortion Measures, IEEE Trans. on Wireless Communications 2009
  40. C. W. Chan, S. Wee, J. Apostolopoulos, Multiple Distortion Measures for Packetized Scalable Media, IEEE Trans. on Multimedia 2008.
• Book Chapters:
  1. C. W. Chan, L. V. Green. Improving Access to Healthcare: Models of Adaptive Behavior, Handbook of Healthcare Operations Management, International Series in Operations Research & Management Science (Editor: B. Denton) 2013

Select Honors and Awards

• 2019 MSOM Young Scholar Prize
• POMS Wickham Skinner Early Career Award, 2016
• NSF CAREER Grant (2014-2019): "Managing Patient Flows with Congestion Effects" ($400,000)
• NSF/AHRQ Grant (2012-2015) with G. Escobar (Kaiser Permanente Division of Research): "Collaborative Research: Management of Transitional Care Units to Improve Hospital Outcomes" ($300,000)
• STMicroelectronics Stanford Graduate Fellowship for graduate studies, Stanford University, 2004-2008.
• National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, Honorable Mention, 2006.

Teaching

• Columbia Business School:
  • Consulting Practicum: Healthcare Management, Design, and Strategy (MBA Elective). More details about the course, including examples of prior projects can be found here.
  • The U.S. Healthcare System: Structure and Strategies (MBA Elective)
  • The Analytics Advantage (MBA Elective)
  • Operations Management (MBA Core)
  • Service Operations (MSE Elective)
  • Decision Models (MBA Core)
  • Operational, Economic, and Statistical Modeling in the COVID-19 Crisis (PhD elective)
  • Executive Education
    • Digital Transformation in Healthcare (Online)
    • Digital Health Strategy (Live Online)
    • Health Data Science (Live Online)