Published & Accepted Papers

[† denotes industry collaborators] [(M.D.) denotes M.D. collaborators]

• Harmonizing Safety and Speed: A Human-Algorithm Approach to Enhance the FDA’s Medical Device Clearance Policy
  Accepted at Management Science
  M. Zhalechian, S. Saghafian, O. Robles†
  • Media Coverage: Transforming FDA Clearance: How AI and Human Insight Can Improve Medical Device Safety
  • Media Coverage: A Human-Algorithm Approach to Approving Medical Devices Could Slash the Recall Rate and Save Billions
• Contextual Learning with Online Convex Optimization with Applications to Medical Decision-Making
  Accepted at Management Science
  Collaboration with Massachusetts Hospital
  E. Keyvanshokooh, M. Zhalechian, C. Shi, MP. Van Oyen, P. Kazemian
  • Finalist, INFORMS Minority Issues Forum (MIF) Paper Competition, 2026
  • Finalist, POMS College of Healthcare Operations Management (CHOM) Best Paper Competition, 2022
  • Finalist, INFORMS MSOM Best Student Paper Competition, 2021
  • Finalist, INFORMS Health Applications Society (HAS) Best Student Paper Competition, 2021
  • Second Place, INFORMS Decision Analysis Society (DAS) Best Student Paper, 2020

• Dynamic Care Unit Placements under Unknown Demand with Learning
  Accepted at Manufacturing & Service Operations Management
  Collaboration with St. Joseph Hospital
  A. Dean, M. Zhalechian, MP. Van Oyen

• Data-driven Hospital Admission Control: A Learning Approach
  Accepted at Operations Research
  Collaboration with St. Joseph Hospital
  M. Zhalechian, E. Keyvanshokooh, C. Shi, MP. Van Oyen
  • Winner of Richard C. Wilson Best Student Paper Award on Service Systems, 2021
  • Finalist, Seth Bonder Scholarship, INFORMS Health Applications Society, 2020

• Online Resource Allocation with Personalized Learning
  Accepted at Operations Research
  Collaboration with Michigan Medicine
  M. Zhalechian, E. Keyvanshokooh, C. Shi, MP. Van Oyen

• Validation of a Visual Field Prediction Tool for Glaucoma: A Multicenter Study Involving Patients with Glaucoma from Throughout the United Kingdom
  Accepted at American Journal of Ophthalmology
  Collaboration with Medisoft UK
  A. Dean, DJ. Fu (M.D.), M. Zhalechian, MP. Van Oyen, M. Lavieri, AP. Khawaja (M.D.), J. Stein (M.D.)

• Augmenting Kalman Filter Machine Learning Models with Data from Optical Coherence Tomography to Predict Future Visual Field Loss: The African Descent and Glaucoma Evaluation Study
  Accepted at Ophthalmology Science
  Collaboration with Kellogg Eye Center and Shiley Eye Institute
  M. Zhalechian, MP. Van Oyen, M. Lavieri, C. Andrew†, J. Stein (M.D.), et al.

Working Papers

[† denotes industry collaborators] [(M.D.) denotes M.D. collaborators]

• Learning Bundle Pricing of Reusable Resources
  Under Review
  A. Dean, M. Zhalechian, C. Shi
  • Finalist, Service Science Best Student Paper Competition, 2024

• Does Early Pain Management Pay Off? Evidence on Utilization, Costs, and Surgeries
  Under Review
  B. Li, M. Zhalechian, C. Chen, N. Vaughn (M.D.), H. Lee (M.D.)

• From Implementation to Impact: Human-Algorithm Collaboration in Hospital Bed Placement
  Under Review
  A. Dean, M. Zhalechian, I. Attari, MP. Van Oyen, M. Garifullin†, J. Pardo†
  • Implemented at Michigan Medicine since July 2023
  • Finalist, INFORMS Service Science Cluster Best Paper Competition, 2026
  • Selected for presentation at the Healthcare SIG Track, MSOM Conference, 2026
  • Accepted at Michigan Medicine Quality Month Symposium, 2024

• Interpretable Design of Coordinated Multi-Agent Mobile Health Applications
  In Preparation
  M. Zhalechian, H. Hejazian, S. Saghafian, Y. Fukuoka

• Operations Management for Restorative Public Health: Grand Challenges in Reversing the Damage of the Opioid Crisis
  Major Revision at Manufacturing & Service Operations Management
  C. Chen, J. Helm, B. Li, J. Mejia, M. Zhalechian (alphabetical authors)
  • Selected for presentation at the Healthcare SIG Track, MSOM Conference, 2026

Selected Papers Published Prior my Ph.D.

In my past life, I used to work on supply chain network design.

• Sustainable Design of a Closed-loop Location-routing-inventory Supply Chain Network Under Mixed Uncertainty
  Transportation Research Part E, 2016
  M. Zhalechian, R. Tavakkoli-Moghaddam, B. Zahiri, M. Mohammadi

• Hub-and-spoke network design under operational and disruption risks
  Transportation Research Part E, 2017
  M. Zhalechian, SA. Torabi, M. Mohammadi

• A Self-adaptive Evolutionary Algorithm for a Fuzzy Multi-objective Hub Location Problem: An Integration of Responsiveness and Social Responsibility
  Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence, 2017
  M. Zhalechian, R. Tavakkoli-Moghaddam, Y. Rahimi

Honors and Awards

(* denotes honors or awards received by students)