The Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS), the largest association of decision and data sciences, awarded Chile the Franz Edelman Award 2022 for its achievements in advanced analytics, operations research and management science to improve the country’s response to the pandemic.
The award ceremony was held this Monday, April 4, in Houston, Texas, and was attended by a large Chilean delegation composed of representatives from the different institutions responsible for these analytical tools that are essential to address the country’s health crisis.
A platform to monitor population mobility during quarantines, a system to optimize the active search for asymptomatic cases in critical areas, a program to monitor the antibody response to the different vaccines against COVID-19 and a methodology to guide the allocation of patients among hospitals nationwide. These are the innovative solutions developed by researchers from the Instituto Sistemas Complejos de Ingeniería (ISCI) and the Universidad de Chile, in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Science, Technology, Knowledge and Innovation, and Entel, which were distinguished.
“Our cutting-edge analytical developments were implemented in the field, involved the work of hundreds of people, from scientists to health workers, and saved, at a conservative estimate, more than 2,800 lives”, said Leonardo Basso, director of the Instituto Sistemas Complejos de Ingeniería (ISCI) and academic at the University of Chile, who also estimated that these applications meant savings of over 200 million dollars and more than 65,000 COVID-19 infections avoided.
The former Chilean Undersecretary of Public Health, Paula Daza - who was also part of the delegation that traveled to the US - explained that “these innovations have been used in key decisions that helped with the three pillars of the Chilean strategy against the virus: prevention of contagions, centralized management of critical beds and vaccination”. The former Minister of Science, Andrés Couve, also valued that this distinction “also shows the importance of investing in science, innovation and technology”.
“The pandemic made clear to us the need for science and analytics in the management of public policies to better support decision making. The relationship between government, academia represented by ISCI and the private sector represented by Entel, resulted in a powerful collaboration that brought operational research to the forefront providing clear guidance for planning non-pharmaceutical interventions, managing scarce resources such as critical beds, mass and efficient testing, and better understanding the effects of vaccines over time to be able to plan ahead. We are proud that this great work carried out in our country is being highlighted worldwide. Our government has just begun and we are very excited to continue with these collaborations, using science and analytics to support decision making in the great challenges that public health provides for us to face in our country and in the world”, said Begoña Yarza, current Minister of Health.
“It is a source of great pride that a group of Chilean researchers and organizations are internationally recognized for their scientific contribution during the pandemic. I think it reflects the capabilities that exist in the country, which are often not fully recognized but are still latent. I believe that obtaining an international award and a recognition of this type gives us prestige and encourages us to continue advancing in the promotion of knowledge in the country, to support a new development model", said the Minister of Science, Flavio Salazar.
Finally, Antonio Moreno, Manager of Entel Ocean emphasized “how fruitful the joint work of academia, government and a private sector willing to innovate was and can be in the future”.
Alibaba, US Census Bureau, General Motors, Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson (Janssen) and Merck Animal Health were the other finalists of this year’s Franz Edelman Award, a contest that since 1972 recognizes the best applied engineering interventions in the world and that in 2021 awarded the United Nations World Food Program and in 2020 Intel. Each year, INFORMS honors the finalist devices that have contributed to improving organizational efficiency, increasing profits and savings, producing better products for consumers and saving lives. Since its inception, the cumulative dollar benefits of Edelman’s finalist projects have exceeded $336 billion.
Additional information about the INFORMS Franz Edelman Award 2022 finalists and the competition can be found at: informs.org/Recognizing-Excellence/2020-Edelman-Award
About INFORMS
INFORMS advances and promotes the science and technology of decision making to save lives, save money and solve problems. As the largest data and decision science association, INFORMS members support organizations and governments at all levels as they work to transform data into information, and information into more efficient, effective and impactful outcomes. INFORMS’ more than 10,000 members are part of a diverse and robust international community of practitioners, researchers, educators and students from a variety of fields.
More about the Chilean innovations awarded with the Franz Edelman Award
High-impact innovations to combat the pandemic
At the onset of the health crisis, the Instituto Sistemas Complejos de Ingeniería (ISCI) focused its work on the development of methodologies and advanced analysis tools to address the spread of COVID-19 in the country. In this context, ISCI signed an alliance with the telecommunications company Entel to process anonymized mobility data, and collaborated with the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Science to design solutions to different problems associated with the health emergency. This cooperation resulted in a series of interconnected projects that had an enormous impact on public policy and the evolution of the pandemic in Chile.
These initiatives, which contributed to shape the strategy deployed against SARS-CoV-2, were based on the use of advanced analytics of large datasets, work that allowed the generation of information and tools that have been, and still are, in use by authorities, as well as health officials and other areas. Of the set of initiatives deployed as part of this work, four are the ones that stand out in the Franz Edelman Award 2022:
In the early stages of the pandemic, Chile implemented various measures to restrict the mobility of the population, one of the main ones being quarantines. To measure compliance with this provision and its impact on limiting the spread of the virus, researchers from ISCI and the University of Chile, together with Entel, signed a collaboration agreement to process clustered and anonymized geo-localized cell phone data. These data and algorithms were integrated into the COVID Analytics platform, a tool that allowed identifying the mobility of people in the territory and the degree of compliance with quarantines, allowing, for example, early identification of unequal adherence according to the socioeconomic stratum of the commune.
At the end of the first wave of infections in Chile (around July 2020), the health authority changed its PCR testing strategy to one focused on the active search for asymptomatic patients in public areas. Thus, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Science and ISCI signed a collaboration agreement that allowed combining epidemiological data with the COVID Analytics mobility platform. This work led to the implementation of a system to optimize the active search for asymptomatic cases in high-risk areas, making it possible to prioritize limited testing resources. The strategy was launched nationally in November 2020. Currently, the risk index is available to the 16 regional health authorities and 29 health services that make up the public health system, where it is actively used for asymptomatic case-finding planning.
The inoculation process in Chile began in February 2021 with two types of vaccines: Coronovac’s inactivated virus and Pfizer’s mRNA vaccines. The strategy required measuring the effectiveness of these vaccines in different age groups and risk profiles, which would allow prioritizing their allocation and assessing the need for booster doses. In this context, ISCI researchers and the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Chile signed an agreement with the Ministry of Health to promote a surveillance program on the response of antibodies to different types of vaccines. This project, which to date has obtained samples from more than 110,000 people throughout the country, identified the constant low level of antibodies in those vaccinated with inactivated virus from the third week after the second dose. The results of this work, published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases, were decisive in the decision to administer booster doses from August 2021. The surveillance program is currently generating large amounts of data on the effects of booster doses over time.
In early May 2020, the number of infected persons in Chile began to increase rapidly, as did the number of severe cases. This situation meant reaching saturation levels in intensive care services. At the national level, ICU bed occupancy reached 97% and in some regions the demand even doubled hospital capacity. In this scenario, the Ministry of Science asked ISCI to develop a critical patient forecasting system to guide allocation between hospitals, in some cases transferring them between cities to balance the load. The system used Ministry of Science data and a set of methods, combining autoregressive, machine learning, and epidemiological models, to formulate one- and two-week projections. These reports were shared with members of the National Crisis Table, in charge of capacity planning. The methodology was also implemented during the second wave of infections in March-May 2021, which required extending the models to include data from the vaccination campaign.
Video presentación Franz Edelman Award 2022
Anuncio de ganador Franz Edelman Award 2022
5 Abr, 2022
The Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS), the largest association of decision and data sciences, awarded Chile the Franz Edelman Award 2022 for its achievements in advanced analytics, operations research and management science to improve the country’s response to the pandemic.
The award ceremony was held this Monday, April 4, in Houston, Texas, and was attended by a large Chilean delegation composed of representatives from the different institutions responsible for these analytical tools that are essential to address the country’s health crisis.
A platform to monitor population mobility during quarantines, a system to optimize the active search for asymptomatic cases in critical areas, a program to monitor the antibody response to the different vaccines against COVID-19 and a methodology to guide the allocation of patients among hospitals nationwide. These are the innovative solutions developed by researchers from the Instituto Sistemas Complejos de Ingeniería (ISCI) and the Universidad de Chile, in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Science, Technology, Knowledge and Innovation, and Entel, which were distinguished.
“Our cutting-edge analytical developments were implemented in the field, involved the work of hundreds of people, from scientists to health workers, and saved, at a conservative estimate, more than 2,800 lives”, said Leonardo Basso, director of the Instituto Sistemas Complejos de Ingeniería (ISCI) and academic at the University of Chile, who also estimated that these applications meant savings of over 200 million dollars and more than 65,000 COVID-19 infections avoided.
The former Chilean Undersecretary of Public Health, Paula Daza - who was also part of the delegation that traveled to the US - explained that “these innovations have been used in key decisions that helped with the three pillars of the Chilean strategy against the virus: prevention of contagions, centralized management of critical beds and vaccination”. The former Minister of Science, Andrés Couve, also valued that this distinction “also shows the importance of investing in science, innovation and technology”.
“The pandemic made clear to us the need for science and analytics in the management of public policies to better support decision making. The relationship between government, academia represented by ISCI and the private sector represented by Entel, resulted in a powerful collaboration that brought operational research to the forefront providing clear guidance for planning non-pharmaceutical interventions, managing scarce resources such as critical beds, mass and efficient testing, and better understanding the effects of vaccines over time to be able to plan ahead. We are proud that this great work carried out in our country is being highlighted worldwide. Our government has just begun and we are very excited to continue with these collaborations, using science and analytics to support decision making in the great challenges that public health provides for us to face in our country and in the world”, said Begoña Yarza, current Minister of Health.
“It is a source of great pride that a group of Chilean researchers and organizations are internationally recognized for their scientific contribution during the pandemic. I think it reflects the capabilities that exist in the country, which are often not fully recognized but are still latent. I believe that obtaining an international award and a recognition of this type gives us prestige and encourages us to continue advancing in the promotion of knowledge in the country, to support a new development model", said the Minister of Science, Flavio Salazar.
Finally, Antonio Moreno, Manager of Entel Ocean emphasized “how fruitful the joint work of academia, government and a private sector willing to innovate was and can be in the future”.
Alibaba, US Census Bureau, General Motors, Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson (Janssen) and Merck Animal Health were the other finalists of this year’s Franz Edelman Award, a contest that since 1972 recognizes the best applied engineering interventions in the world and that in 2021 awarded the United Nations World Food Program and in 2020 Intel. Each year, INFORMS honors the finalist devices that have contributed to improving organizational efficiency, increasing profits and savings, producing better products for consumers and saving lives. Since its inception, the cumulative dollar benefits of Edelman’s finalist projects have exceeded $336 billion.
Additional information about the INFORMS Franz Edelman Award 2022 finalists and the competition can be found at: informs.org/Recognizing-Excellence/2020-Edelman-Award
About INFORMS
INFORMS advances and promotes the science and technology of decision making to save lives, save money and solve problems. As the largest data and decision science association, INFORMS members support organizations and governments at all levels as they work to transform data into information, and information into more efficient, effective and impactful outcomes. INFORMS’ more than 10,000 members are part of a diverse and robust international community of practitioners, researchers, educators and students from a variety of fields.
More about the Chilean innovations awarded with the Franz Edelman Award
High-impact innovations to combat the pandemic
At the onset of the health crisis, the Instituto Sistemas Complejos de Ingeniería (ISCI) focused its work on the development of methodologies and advanced analysis tools to address the spread of COVID-19 in the country. In this context, ISCI signed an alliance with the telecommunications company Entel to process anonymized mobility data, and collaborated with the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Science to design solutions to different problems associated with the health emergency. This cooperation resulted in a series of interconnected projects that had an enormous impact on public policy and the evolution of the pandemic in Chile.
These initiatives, which contributed to shape the strategy deployed against SARS-CoV-2, were based on the use of advanced analytics of large datasets, work that allowed the generation of information and tools that have been, and still are, in use by authorities, as well as health officials and other areas. Of the set of initiatives deployed as part of this work, four are the ones that stand out in the Franz Edelman Award 2022:
In the early stages of the pandemic, Chile implemented various measures to restrict the mobility of the population, one of the main ones being quarantines. To measure compliance with this provision and its impact on limiting the spread of the virus, researchers from ISCI and the University of Chile, together with Entel, signed a collaboration agreement to process clustered and anonymized geo-localized cell phone data. These data and algorithms were integrated into the COVID Analytics platform, a tool that allowed identifying the mobility of people in the territory and the degree of compliance with quarantines, allowing, for example, early identification of unequal adherence according to the socioeconomic stratum of the commune.
At the end of the first wave of infections in Chile (around July 2020), the health authority changed its PCR testing strategy to one focused on the active search for asymptomatic patients in public areas. Thus, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Science and ISCI signed a collaboration agreement that allowed combining epidemiological data with the COVID Analytics mobility platform. This work led to the implementation of a system to optimize the active search for asymptomatic cases in high-risk areas, making it possible to prioritize limited testing resources. The strategy was launched nationally in November 2020. Currently, the risk index is available to the 16 regional health authorities and 29 health services that make up the public health system, where it is actively used for asymptomatic case-finding planning.
The inoculation process in Chile began in February 2021 with two types of vaccines: Coronovac’s inactivated virus and Pfizer’s mRNA vaccines. The strategy required measuring the effectiveness of these vaccines in different age groups and risk profiles, which would allow prioritizing their allocation and assessing the need for booster doses. In this context, ISCI researchers and the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Chile signed an agreement with the Ministry of Health to promote a surveillance program on the response of antibodies to different types of vaccines. This project, which to date has obtained samples from more than 110,000 people throughout the country, identified the constant low level of antibodies in those vaccinated with inactivated virus from the third week after the second dose. The results of this work, published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases, were decisive in the decision to administer booster doses from August 2021. The surveillance program is currently generating large amounts of data on the effects of booster doses over time.
In early May 2020, the number of infected persons in Chile began to increase rapidly, as did the number of severe cases. This situation meant reaching saturation levels in intensive care services. At the national level, ICU bed occupancy reached 97% and in some regions the demand even doubled hospital capacity. In this scenario, the Ministry of Science asked ISCI to develop a critical patient forecasting system to guide allocation between hospitals, in some cases transferring them between cities to balance the load. The system used Ministry of Science data and a set of methods, combining autoregressive, machine learning, and epidemiological models, to formulate one- and two-week projections. These reports were shared with members of the National Crisis Table, in charge of capacity planning. The methodology was also implemented during the second wave of infections in March-May 2021, which required extending the models to include data from the vaccination campaign.
Video presentación Franz Edelman Award 2022
Anuncio de ganador Franz Edelman Award 2022
The Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS), the largest association of decision and data sciences, awarded Chile the Franz Edelman Award 2022 for its achievements in advanced analytics, operations research and management science to improve the country’s response to the pandemic.
The award ceremony was held this Monday, April 4, in Houston, Texas, and was attended by a large Chilean delegation composed of representatives from the different institutions responsible for these analytical tools that are essential to address the country’s health crisis.
A platform to monitor population mobility during quarantines, a system to optimize the active search for asymptomatic cases in critical areas, a program to monitor the antibody response to the different vaccines against COVID-19 and a methodology to guide the allocation of patients among hospitals nationwide. These are the innovative solutions developed by researchers from the Instituto Sistemas Complejos de Ingeniería (ISCI) and the Universidad de Chile, in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Science, Technology, Knowledge and Innovation, and Entel, which were distinguished.
“Our cutting-edge analytical developments were implemented in the field, involved the work of hundreds of people, from scientists to health workers, and saved, at a conservative estimate, more than 2,800 lives”, said Leonardo Basso, director of the Instituto Sistemas Complejos de Ingeniería (ISCI) and academic at the University of Chile, who also estimated that these applications meant savings of over 200 million dollars and more than 65,000 COVID-19 infections avoided.
The former Chilean Undersecretary of Public Health, Paula Daza - who was also part of the delegation that traveled to the US - explained that “these innovations have been used in key decisions that helped with the three pillars of the Chilean strategy against the virus: prevention of contagions, centralized management of critical beds and vaccination”. The former Minister of Science, Andrés Couve, also valued that this distinction “also shows the importance of investing in science, innovation and technology”.
“The pandemic made clear to us the need for science and analytics in the management of public policies to better support decision making. The relationship between government, academia represented by ISCI and the private sector represented by Entel, resulted in a powerful collaboration that brought operational research to the forefront providing clear guidance for planning non-pharmaceutical interventions, managing scarce resources such as critical beds, mass and efficient testing, and better understanding the effects of vaccines over time to be able to plan ahead. We are proud that this great work carried out in our country is being highlighted worldwide. Our government has just begun and we are very excited to continue with these collaborations, using science and analytics to support decision making in the great challenges that public health provides for us to face in our country and in the world”, said Begoña Yarza, current Minister of Health.
“It is a source of great pride that a group of Chilean researchers and organizations are internationally recognized for their scientific contribution during the pandemic. I think it reflects the capabilities that exist in the country, which are often not fully recognized but are still latent. I believe that obtaining an international award and a recognition of this type gives us prestige and encourages us to continue advancing in the promotion of knowledge in the country, to support a new development model", said the Minister of Science, Flavio Salazar.
Finally, Antonio Moreno, Manager of Entel Ocean emphasized “how fruitful the joint work of academia, government and a private sector willing to innovate was and can be in the future”.
Alibaba, US Census Bureau, General Motors, Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson (Janssen) and Merck Animal Health were the other finalists of this year’s Franz Edelman Award, a contest that since 1972 recognizes the best applied engineering interventions in the world and that in 2021 awarded the United Nations World Food Program and in 2020 Intel. Each year, INFORMS honors the finalist devices that have contributed to improving organizational efficiency, increasing profits and savings, producing better products for consumers and saving lives. Since its inception, the cumulative dollar benefits of Edelman’s finalist projects have exceeded $336 billion.
Additional information about the INFORMS Franz Edelman Award 2022 finalists and the competition can be found at: informs.org/Recognizing-Excellence/2020-Edelman-Award
About INFORMS
INFORMS advances and promotes the science and technology of decision making to save lives, save money and solve problems. As the largest data and decision science association, INFORMS members support organizations and governments at all levels as they work to transform data into information, and information into more efficient, effective and impactful outcomes. INFORMS’ more than 10,000 members are part of a diverse and robust international community of practitioners, researchers, educators and students from a variety of fields.
More about the Chilean innovations awarded with the Franz Edelman Award
High-impact innovations to combat the pandemic
At the onset of the health crisis, the Instituto Sistemas Complejos de Ingeniería (ISCI) focused its work on the development of methodologies and advanced analysis tools to address the spread of COVID-19 in the country. In this context, ISCI signed an alliance with the telecommunications company Entel to process anonymized mobility data, and collaborated with the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Science to design solutions to different problems associated with the health emergency. This cooperation resulted in a series of interconnected projects that had an enormous impact on public policy and the evolution of the pandemic in Chile.
These initiatives, which contributed to shape the strategy deployed against SARS-CoV-2, were based on the use of advanced analytics of large datasets, work that allowed the generation of information and tools that have been, and still are, in use by authorities, as well as health officials and other areas. Of the set of initiatives deployed as part of this work, four are the ones that stand out in the Franz Edelman Award 2022:
In the early stages of the pandemic, Chile implemented various measures to restrict the mobility of the population, one of the main ones being quarantines. To measure compliance with this provision and its impact on limiting the spread of the virus, researchers from ISCI and the University of Chile, together with Entel, signed a collaboration agreement to process clustered and anonymized geo-localized cell phone data. These data and algorithms were integrated into the COVID Analytics platform, a tool that allowed identifying the mobility of people in the territory and the degree of compliance with quarantines, allowing, for example, early identification of unequal adherence according to the socioeconomic stratum of the commune.
At the end of the first wave of infections in Chile (around July 2020), the health authority changed its PCR testing strategy to one focused on the active search for asymptomatic patients in public areas. Thus, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Science and ISCI signed a collaboration agreement that allowed combining epidemiological data with the COVID Analytics mobility platform. This work led to the implementation of a system to optimize the active search for asymptomatic cases in high-risk areas, making it possible to prioritize limited testing resources. The strategy was launched nationally in November 2020. Currently, the risk index is available to the 16 regional health authorities and 29 health services that make up the public health system, where it is actively used for asymptomatic case-finding planning.
The inoculation process in Chile began in February 2021 with two types of vaccines: Coronovac’s inactivated virus and Pfizer’s mRNA vaccines. The strategy required measuring the effectiveness of these vaccines in different age groups and risk profiles, which would allow prioritizing their allocation and assessing the need for booster doses. In this context, ISCI researchers and the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Chile signed an agreement with the Ministry of Health to promote a surveillance program on the response of antibodies to different types of vaccines. This project, which to date has obtained samples from more than 110,000 people throughout the country, identified the constant low level of antibodies in those vaccinated with inactivated virus from the third week after the second dose. The results of this work, published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases, were decisive in the decision to administer booster doses from August 2021. The surveillance program is currently generating large amounts of data on the effects of booster doses over time.
In early May 2020, the number of infected persons in Chile began to increase rapidly, as did the number of severe cases. This situation meant reaching saturation levels in intensive care services. At the national level, ICU bed occupancy reached 97% and in some regions the demand even doubled hospital capacity. In this scenario, the Ministry of Science asked ISCI to develop a critical patient forecasting system to guide allocation between hospitals, in some cases transferring them between cities to balance the load. The system used Ministry of Science data and a set of methods, combining autoregressive, machine learning, and epidemiological models, to formulate one- and two-week projections. These reports were shared with members of the National Crisis Table, in charge of capacity planning. The methodology was also implemented during the second wave of infections in March-May 2021, which required extending the models to include data from the vaccination campaign.
Video presentación Franz Edelman Award 2022
Anuncio de ganador Franz Edelman Award 2022