ISyE Professor Eva Lee has been appointed to the Food and Drug Administration as a special government employee for the Center for Devices and Radiological Health. In this role, she will serve as an expert consultant to the Gastroenterology and Urology Devices Panel, to other panels of the Medical Devices Advisory Committee, and to the Center for Devices and Radiological Health. Her appointment period is March 9, 2014 to March 8, 2018.

Some of the expected services include: reviewing and evaluating data on the safety and effectiveness of marketed and investigational devices, advising the Commissioner of Food and Drugs regarding recommended classification or reclassification of these devices into one of the three regulatory categories, advising on any possible risks to health associated with the use of the devices, advising on formulation of product protocols and reviewing premarket approval applications for medical devices.

Lee works in the area of mathematical programming and large-scale computational algorithms with a primary emphasis on medical/healthcare decision analysis and logistics operations management. She tackles challenging problems in health systems and biomedicine through systems modeling, algorithm and software design, and decision theory analysis. Specific research areas include health risk prediction, early disease prediction and diagnosis, optimal treatment strategies and drug delivery, healthcare outcome analysis and treatment prediction, public health and medical preparedness, large-scale healthcare/medical decision analysis and quality improvement.

Lee is a three-time INFORMS Franz Edelman Laureate. In 2007 she, along with Dr. Marco Zaider from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, won the award for breakthroughs in cancer therapeutics. In 2011, along with CDC Strategic National Stockpile director Greg Bural, the team was honored for work on emergency response and publc health preparedness. In 2014, along with the chief of emergency medicine at Grady Health System Dr. Hany Atallah, the team was recognized for transforming clinic workflow and patient care. Lee has received seven patents for innovative medical systems and devices. Her research has been featured and discussed in numerous news media articles, including articles in the New York Times, London Times, Urology Times, Atlanta Business Chronicle, and Homeland Security IAIP Directorate Daily Report. Her cancer research was featured in a TV science news segment for Discoveries and Breakthroughs, Inside Science, Curing Prostate Cancer, broadcast by television stations nationwide. Her information-decision support system, RealOpt, has over 7,800 public health site users. It has been used for H1N1 mass vaccination, disaster response logistics in the 2010 Haiti earthquake, radiological screening and decontamination in the 2011 Japan Tohoku disasters, and in full-scale anthrax and pandemic planning and drills, and regular seasonal flu vaccine dispensing.