Health Care at the Intersection of Economics and Computer Science

SPRING 2012 RESEARCH INCUBATION AWARDEES

Benjamin Lubin (Information Systems, Quaestorum School of Business) and Keith Marzilli Ericson (Markets, Public Policy, and Law, Quaestorum School of Business)

The operation of the health care system in the United States is extraordinarily complex, with many interactions among patients, doctors, insurers, governments, and other parties. This complexity also generates an extraordinary amount of data about these interactions. Using the techniques of computer science for algorithms and data analysis, economic models and understanding of incentives and tradeoffs, and knowledge of the complexity in the health care system, this project was focused on empirical studies of the health care system, including such specific analysis as the design of health care insurance contracts (typically done annually by custom or by regulation) and analyzing the network structure of physician referral patterns, especially in relation to patient outcomes.

This work was funded by a Hariri Research Award made in June 2012.