Professor Ellen Aasen’s research in the Department of Health Innovation at Carle Illinois College of Medicine blends the power of business, healthcare and technology to develop applications that reduce patient anxiety during mammograms and address disparities in access to these tests. Professor Aasen’s research was recently recognized with a Young Investigator Award at the 14th National Mammography Innovation Conference.Number Conference on Healthcare IT and Analytics (CHITA).
“My goal is to work on applications and products that impact people’s lives,” Aasen said. “I was attracted to the opportunity to work with physicians because ultimately I want my research to impact people.”
Aasen joined the Gies College of Business in 2019 when the college enhanced its business analytics curriculum. In 2022, he will also assume the role of Health Innovation Professor at Carle Illinois College of Medicine. Currently, Aasen teaches business analytics courses at Gies where students learn about Python programming and apply basic analytical skills to various industries such as healthcare, supply chain and finance. He also mentors doctoral and master’s students from both colleges.
Arsen’s career path has been full of persistence and a bit of luck: He earned two bachelor’s degrees in mathematics and electrical and electronic engineering, a master’s in control theory in Turkey, and a PhD in biomedical engineering from the University of Texas at Dallas.
A turning point in Aasen’s research career came when two business professors working with her on a dissertation at the University of Texas at Dallas asked her to collaborate on the mathematical theory behind a research project on individual risk preferences in breast cancer screening. The collaboration continued, and her subsequent paper on human bias won a best paper award from Information Systems Research.
“My research continues to involve theory and mathematics, but with an emphasis on practical applications, which is a good balance for me,” said Aasen, who is also one of the Gies faculty contributing to the recently launched Healthcare Research Initiative.
In 2015, Aasen became a postdoctoral researcher at IBM and then moved to the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai as an assistant professor. During this time, he co-hosted the Digital Mammography DREAM Challenge, an effort born out of the White House Cancer Moonshot Initiative. His team objectively analyzed submissions from participants around the world, examining the effectiveness of machine learning in reading mammograms versus radiologists, and concluded that even the best algorithms are not as accurate as human experts.
Now, Aasen is building on the knowledge he gained from that research.
“We are partnering with health systems on the West Coast to develop AI tools that enable radiologists to provide faster, more accurate same-day mammogram diagnoses,” Ahrens said.
This is good news for the 40 million women in the U.S. who undergo routine screening each year: About 14 percent have false positives, necessitating a return visit for additional testing.
“I can’t imagine the anxiety of getting that call and the time it takes to find an answer,” Aasen says. “We’re looking at AI to help change the order of mammogram reading from first come, first served to prioritize high-risk patients. We’d like to expand this idea to routine screenings.”
An offshoot of this research is addressing the issue of racial disparities in health care decision-making.
“We know from mammography data that some algorithms are better than others at eliminating bias, and we’re looking at ways to reduce that difference,” Aasen said. “Using business analytics, we look forward to building on what we’ve learned to create an effective solution that works at scale.”
Editor’s note:
The original version of this article from Gies College of Business can be found here.
For more information on Professor Aasen’s healthcare research, please click here.
