Qiushi Chen - ... and More

On this page, I will update some interesting work and activities (some are work-in-progress) that I have been involved, as well as some resources and links for students and anyone who may be interested. If you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to contact me!

Capstone Project (2021 SP): Opioid Policy and Data Dashboard (OPADD)

Working with an extraordinary capstone team that consisted of a group of IME and IST senior students at Penn State, we developed an online dashboard to show the relevant measures and policies about the opioid overdose epidemic in the US. This dashboard includes state-level data of opioid-related overdose deaths, dispensing, hospital uses, criminal incidents, as well as key dates of opioid-related policies such as prescription monitoring programs and naloxone access laws. Data were collected from publicly available sources. Check it out at www.opaddproject.org!

Won the Second Prize of the Awards for Best Video in the 2021 Spring Learning Factory Capstone Design Project Showcase (from more than 700 student participants) [PSU News]

Hep C Calculator

Instead of publish-and-perish our previous modeling analysis for the cost-effectiveness of hepatitis C treatment, we decided to turn our simulation model and results alive. While working at MGH-ITA, I built this interactive tool with our research group based on our previously developed hepatitis C simulation model, which aims to help policy makers answer the what-if questions: What if the treatment cost (or other cost drivers) is different in a differnet country? Would the treatment still be cost-effective? We were told by WHO officers that they found this tool very helpful during their conversation with local health officials in different countries to promote the coverage of hepatitis C treatment. Check it out at https://www.hepccalculator.org/ !

A different version of the hepatitis C simulation model that I developed was later used to power another online interactive tool to inform health policy makers in the US about the impact of treatment and screening policies for hepatitis C at the state level. Check out the Hep C State Policy Simulator at https://www.hepcsimulator.org/!

Health Analytics Interest Group

We formed a study group consisting of undergraduate students, graudate students, and a medical doctor to explore the utilization of huge healthcare database together. We will need to figure out together how to deal with the humongous data files that cannot be even loaded into the computer memory, how to design effective query of selecting individuals with certain certeria to create study cohort, how to formulate clinically meaningful questions that can be answered by the data, and how to extract useful clinical insights from the right analytical tool! Looking forward to it!

Resources and Misc. (for students)

INFORMS Health Applications Society Online Seminar: Monthly online research seminar in broad areas of healthcare. See more details and stay connected at https://connect.informs.org/healthapplications/has-seminar-series

Academic Writing: I think I will agree with most students on this one: Writing is hard. But we don't have to learn to tackle this completely on our own. There are many good online courses, guidelines, and tips for scientific writing from other educators and writers out there to make it easier for you. It may not be a bad idea to treat it as a course to study in your spare time (i.e., listen to lectures, read "textbooks", do practice exercises). I am listing a few that I know, but you may find better ones online:

https://www.craftofscientificwriting.com/ by Prof. Michael Alley at PSU. You may also want to check out his well-known book, The Craft of Scientific Writing, too.
How to Write a Lot: A Practical Guide to Productive Academic Writing. This book was recommended by Jag. It is a quick and fun read. The idea is *very* simple: Write every day.
The Elements of Style. A classic reference. This book was recommended by my advisor Dr. Lei Zhao when I was an undergraduate, who told me this was recommended by his professor before.