Laurent Picard Distinguished Lecture: Mahesh Nagarajan

Operational data driven interventions to decrease adverse events associated with Opioid overdose

Presented by Professor Mahesh Nagarajan

Sauder School of Business - UBC

Date: Thursday April 17, 2025
Time: 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM (EST)
Location: Bronfman building, room 245

Abstract

Adverse events including deaths from illicit drug overdose (specifically Opioids) is a significant issue in North America, especially in the west coast of Canada. In this talk, we present three systematic data driven approaches to decrease such events. First, prevention of drug use and habit formation. Second, the management of addiction among drug users and third, a reactive and dynamic response to forecasted overdose incidents that uses a predictive model built using near miss events and other variables as signals along with a novel caregiver scheduling mechanism. Theoretical instances of the scheduling problem present interesting technical challenges on hardness and approximability which we will partially resolve in this talk. We discuss the implementation of these approaches in urban centers in Canada.