Naoru Koizumi, PhD

Research Focus

I specialize in medical policies, particularly in the fields of organ transplantation and end-stage kidney and liver diseases. My research focuses on the applications of various quantitative tools such as biostatistics, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), simulation and mathematical optimization to analyze various medical and medical policy questions related to organ transplantation and other chronic disease treatments. My projects, funded by the NIH and NSF, include simulations and optimizations of organ allocation (NIH-R21) and bed allocation in a mental health system (NIH-R21 and R01), simulation of slum expansion in India (NSF), and network analysis of organ trafficking systems (NSF).

Current Projects

■ Network Analysis and Opportunities for Disruption of Organ Trafficking: this project performs a network analysis to understand the evolution of global kidney sales network and effective approaches to disrupt such networks.

■ Analysis of Optimal Geographic Boundaries and Organ Allocation Mechanism in Heart Transplantation: this project investigates the optimal boundaries for heart allocation to improve the equity in access to heart transplants in the United States.

■ Personalization of Immunosuppressive Treatment for Organ Transplant Recipients: this project explores new algorithms for personalized prescription of immunosuppressive drugs.

■ Optimal Desensitization to Support Kidney Paired Donation (KPD) System: this project explores the ways to argument the existing KPD exchange operation by effectively incorporating ABO and HLA antibody desensitizations prior to transplantation.

Select Publications

■ Brooks, J. T., et al. (2018). Improved retransplant outcomes: early evidence of the share35 impact. HPB, 20(7), 649-657.

■ Islam, M. S., et al. (2017). Towards a threshold climate for emergency lower respiratory hospital admissions. Environmental Research, 153, 41-47.

■ Koizumi, N., et al. (2015). Geographic variation in cold ischemia time: kidney versus liver transplantation in the United States, 2003 to 2011. Transplantation Direct, 1(7).

■ Patel, A., et al. (2012). Slumulation: an agent-based modeling approach to slum formations. Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, 15(4), 2.