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Hessam Bavafa

Hessam Bavafa
Associate Professor | Operations and Information Management
Wisconsin School of Business Bascom Professor
4284C Grainger Hall

Biography

Hessam Bavafa is an Associate Professor of Operations and Information Management at the Wisconsin School of Business. He is an affiliate faculty of the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. He is also affiliated with the Center for Demography of Health and Aging.

His recent projects, based on econometric analysis and stochastic models, have focused on innovative technologies and service delivery models (e.g., telemedicine), people-centric and behavioral factors that affect performance (e.g., fatigue), healthcare resource management (e.g., panel sizing), and quality management (e.g., pharmaceutical manufacturing). His research has been published in academic journals such as Management Science, Operations Research, Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, Production & Operations Management, Journal of Operations Management, Journal of Health Economics, and Annals of Family Medicine.

He is currently serving as a Department Editor for Decision Sciences. He is also an Associate/Senior Editor for Management Science, Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, Production & Operations Management, and Health Care Management Science.

Professor Bavafa received his Ph.D. and master’s degrees in Operations Management from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania in 2014. He also holds a master’s degree in Operations Research from the Sauder School of Business, University of British Columbia, and a bachelor’s degree in Industrial Engineering from the Sharif University of Technology.

He has worked with leading healthcare organizations such as the University of Pennsylvania Health System, the Provincial Health Services Authority of British Columbia, Veterans Health Administration, University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics, and British Columbia Children’s Hospital. He held a visiting position as Senior Innovation Strategist at the Penn Medicine Center for Health Care Innovation. He is also a moderator for the Health & Wellness Stream of the Creative Destruction Lab, which is a nonprofit organization focused on scalable, seed-stage, science- and technology-based startups.

Professor Bavafa teaches Business Analytics at the Wisconsin School of Business.

Research

Selected Published Journal Articles

Bavafa, H. & Jónasson, J. (2023). The Distributional Impact of Fatigue on Performance Management Science

Bavafa, H. & Mukherjee, A. & Welch, T. (2023). Inequality in the golden years: Wealth gradients in disability-free and work-free longevity in the United States Journal of Health Economics

Soltani, S. & Batt, R. & Bavafa, H. & Patterson, B. (2022). Does What Happens in the ED Stay in the ED? The Effects of Emergency Department Physician Workload on Post-ED Care Use Manufacturing & Service Operations Management

Canamucio, A. & Bavafa, H. & Marcus, S. & Terwiesch, C. & Werner, R. (2022). Capacity Rationing in Primary Care: Provider Availability Shocks and Care Channel Diversion Management Science

Bavafa, H. & Örmeci, L. & Savin, S. & Virudhachalam, V. (2022). Surgical Case-Mix and Discharge Decisions: Does Within-Hospital Coordination Matter? Operations Research

Bavafa, H. & Savin, S. & Terwiesch, C. (2021). Customizing Primary Care Delivery Using E-Visits Production and Operations Management

Bavafa, H. & Jónasson, J. (2021). Recovering from Critical Incidents: Evidence from Paramedic Performance Manufacturing & Service Operations Management

Bavafa, H. & Jónasson, J. (2021). The Variance Learning Curve Management Science

Sinsky, C. & Bavafa, H. & Beasley, J. & Roberts, R. (2021). Standardization vs Customization: Finding the Right Balance Annals of Family Medicine

Bavafa, H. & Örmeci, L. & Savin, S. (2019). Managing Portfolio of Elective Surgical Procedures: A Multidimensional Inverse Newsvendor Problem Operations Research

Bavafa, H. & Terwiesch, C. (2019). Work after Work: The Impact of New Service Delivery Models on Work Hours Journal of Operations Management

Bavafa, H. & Liu, J. & Mukherjee, A. (2019). Building Financial and Health Literacy at Older Ages: The Role of Online Information Journal of Consumer Affairs

Bavafa, H. & Savin, S. & Terwiesch, C. (2019). Managing Patient Panels with Non-Physician Providers Production and Operations Management

Bavafa, H. & Mukherjee, A. (2019). The Burgeoning Health Care Needs of Aging Prisoners American Economic Association: Papers and Proceedings

Bavafa, H. & Hitt, L. & Terwiesch, C. (2018). The Impact of E-Visits on Visit Frequencies and Patient Health: Evidence from Primary Care Management Science

Puterman, M. & Zhang, Y. & Aydede, S. & Palmer, B. & MacLeod, S. & Bavafa, H. & MacKenzie, J. (2013). If You’re Not Keeping Score, You’re Just Practising: A Lean Healthcare Program Evaluation Framework Healthcare Quarterly

Selected Submitted Journal Articles

Bavafa, H. & Blanco, C. & Noh, I. (2021). Quality-Speed Trade-off in Pharmaceutical Review

Ball, G. & Bavafa, H. & Blanco, C. & Park, H. (2021). User-generated Web Data Predicts Quality Risk: Evidence from the Pharmaceutical Industry

Teaching

Undergraduate Courses

Business Analytics I (BUS 365), Fall 2014.

Business Analytics I (BUS 365), Spring 2015.

Business Analytics I (BUS 365), Fall 2015.

Business Analytics I (BUS 306), Fall 2016.

Business Analytics I (BUS 306), Fall 2017.

Business Analytics I (BUS 306), Fall 2018.

Business Analytics I (BUS 306), Fall 2019.

Business Analytics I (BUS 306), Fall 2020.

Business Analytics I (BUS 306), Fall 2022.
Development of quantitative intuition through practical applications and use of analysis tools. Specifically, emphasis will be on how to manage, summarize, explore, and visualize databases. The essentials of probability will be introduced and applied to decision problems where there is uncertainty. Emphasis on hypothesis testing and regression analysis and include an introduction to simulation methods. Throughout, attention will be paid to effective communication of data analysis. The use of business cases will connect the course material to both real world settings and recent advances in data analysis, including big data and data mining.

Service

Professional Organizations

Mack Institute for Innovation Management

Production and Operations Management Society (POMS)

Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences

Manufacturing and Service Operations Management Society

Leonard Davis Institute for Health Economics

Editorial and Reviewing Activities

Decision Sciences – Since January 2023
Editor

Manufacturing & Service Operations Management – Since May 2022
Associate Editor

Production and Operations Management – Since January 2022
Associate Editor

Service Science – Since January 2022
Ad Hoc Reviewer

Management Science – Since January 2021
Associate Editor

Decision Sciences – Since January 2020
Ad Hoc Reviewer

Health Care Management Science – Since January 2020
Associate Editor

Decision Sciences – January 2020 – December 2023
Associate Editor

Operations Research – Since January 2020
Ad Hoc Reviewer

BMJ Open – Since January 2018
Ad Hoc Reviewer

Naval Research Logistics – Since January 2018
Ad Hoc Reviewer

IIE Transactions on Healthcare Systems Engineering – Since January 2018
Ad Hoc Reviewer

Journal of Operations Management – Since January 2017
Ad Hoc Reviewer

Production and Operations Management – Since January 2015
Ad Hoc Reviewer

Socio-Economic Planning Sciences – Since January 2015
Ad Hoc Reviewer

Manufacturing & Service Operations Management (M&SOM) – Since January 2014
Ad Hoc Reviewer

Management Science – Since January 2014
Ad Hoc Reviewer