Chile has won a major international award for its development of analytical tools to fight back against the pandemic.
The Institute for Operations Research and Management Sciences (INFORMS), the largest data and decision sciences association, awarded Chile the 2022 Franz Edelman Award for its achievements in advanced analytics, operations research and management science to improve the country’s response to the pandemic.
The award ceremony in Texas was attended by a large Chilean delegation made up of representatives of the different institutions responsible for these analytical tools.
The innovative solutions that were recognized include a platform to monitor the mobility of the population 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 between hospitals nationwide.
These were developed by researchers from the Complex Engineering Systems Institute (ISCI) and the University of Chile, in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Science, Technology, Knowledge and Innovation, and Entel.
“Our cutting-edge analytical developments involved the work of hundreds of people, from scientists to health workers, and saved more than 2,800 lives,” said Leonardo Basso, Director of the Systems Institute, Engineering Complexes (ISCI) and academic from the University of Chile.
