{"49846":{"#nid":"49846","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Ekici Wins 2009 SHS Student Paper Competition","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EPh.D. student Ali Ekici won the 2009 Society for Health Systems (SHS) Graduate Student Paper Competition with his paper titled Modeling Influenza Pandemic, Intervention Strategies, and Food Distribution. The paper, which is also co-authored by Professors Julie Swann and Pinar Keskinocak, will be presented by Mr. Ekici at the 2009 Society for Health Systems Conference in Chicago.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EThe SHS Student Paper Competition is designed to recognize outstanding work that demonstrates the use of Industrial Engineering skills in improving healthcare related products, processes or services. The paper submissions were judged on originality and soundness, applicability, methodology, organization and quality of the paper. An oral presentation was also a required part of the judging.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EThe paper summarized the threat of a pandemic flu to aid in the development of a food distribution plan and other intervention strategies. The authors identified the potential problems as being: interruption in services due to infection, infected individuals may not be able to obtain food, and the logistical problems of delivering food to ill people. Their findings model the spread of pandemic flu geographically and over time, evaluates the effectiveness of intervention strategies, and develops a facility location and resource allocation model for food distribution.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EThe researchers investigated the effects of voluntary quarantine on disease spread, as well as the best time to begin the quarantine and how long it should last. \u0022These results are important because during a pandemic, communities have limited resources, including food and volunteers to distribute the food,\u0022 notes Swann.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EThe researchers also compared the two interventions: quarantine and school closure. The results showed that closing schools reduced the number of infected with the virus. \u0022While we hope that a pandemic never occurs, our models will help Georgia and other states across the United States prepare response plans for the potential [outbreak],\u0022 Keskinocak commented.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EFor more information on the conference, which is April 1-4 in Chicago, IL, go to \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.iienet2.org\/SHS\/Conference\/default.aspx\u0022\u003Ehttp:\/\/www.iienet2.org\/SHS\/Conference\/default.aspx\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EFor more information on their pandemic influenza planning research \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.isye.gatech.edu\/news-events\/news\/release.php?id=2195\u0022\u003Ehttp:\/\/www.isye.gatech.edu\/news-events\/news\/release.php?id=2195\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EPh.D. student Ali Ekici won the 2009 Society for Health Systems (SHS) Graduate Student Paper Competition with his paper titled Modeling Influenza Pandemic, Intervention Strategies, and Food Distribution. The paper, which is also co-authored by Professors Julie Swann and Pinar Keskinocak, will be presented by Mr. Ekici at the 2009 Society for Health Systems Conference in Chicago.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Ekici Wins 2009 SHS Student Paper Competition"}],"uid":"27279","created_gmt":"2009-03-19 00:00:00","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:03:59","author":"Barbara Christopher","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2009-03-19T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2009-03-19T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"49847":{"id":"49847","type":"image","title":"Ali Ekici (far right) with professors","body":null,"created":"1449175366","gmt_created":"2015-12-03 20:42:46","changed":"1475894451","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:40:51","alt":"Ali Ekici (far right) with professors","file":{"fid":"127003","name":"tvr66577.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/tvr66577_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/tvr66577_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":82904,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/tvr66577_0.jpg?itok=DAsapeA1"}}},"media_ids":["49847"],"groups":[{"id":"1242","name":"School of Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISYE)"}],"categories":[{"id":"129","name":"Institute and Campus"},{"id":"134","name":"Student and Faculty"}],"keywords":[{"id":"1127","name":"Ali Ekici"},{"id":"550","name":"health systems"},{"id":"1129","name":"healthcare"},{"id":"1128","name":"influenza pandemic"},{"id":"1130","name":"keskinocak"},{"id":"233","name":"Logistics"},{"id":"167213","name":"swann"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EBarbara Christopher\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EIndustrial and Systems Engineering\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.gatech.edu\/contact\/index.html?id=bt3\u0022\u003EContact Barbara Christopher\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E404.385.3102\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["bchristopher@isye.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}