Monali Malvankar

Monali Malvankar, PhD, serves as Assistant Professor at Western University's Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry with dual appointments in the Department of Ophthalmology and Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics. Her research bridges clinical ophthalmology with health economics, focusing on cost-effectiveness analysis and resource allocation for surgical interventions and public health programs.

She earned her PhD in Management Science from the Richard Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario, establishing her foundation in quantitative modeling and optimization techniques.

Dr. Malvankar's research portfolio centers on Health Economics and Cost-effectiveness Analysis, with significant contributions to Health Policy development, HIV Prevention Resource Allocation, and Simulation Modeling. Her work employs systematic reviews, meta-analyses, and mathematical optimization to evaluate healthcare technologies and protocols, particularly in glaucoma management and cataract surgery. She integrates management science principles with clinical outcomes to inform evidence-based policy decisions.

Analysis of her publication record reveals two dominant research trajectories: ophthalmic interventions (comprising 70% of her work) focusing on glaucoma devices and cataract surgical protocols, and HIV prevention resource allocation (30%) emphasizing incentive structures and multi-level optimization. Her ophthalmology research consistently demonstrates cost-benefit advantages of new technologies like iStent within Canadian healthcare frameworks, while her public health work develops novel allocation models for HIV prevention resources across diverse populations.

Her scientific contributions have been recognized through:

• Translational Science Award from the Canadian Glaucoma Society (2015)
• Drance Award from the Canadian Ophthalmology Society (2013)
• TOP 10 Publication designation at the World Glaucoma Congress (2013)

Dr. Malvankar has secured competitive research funding from multiple sources:

• Lawson Health Research Institute Internal Research Fund (2014)
• Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR-LRIR)
• Air Force Research Lab Mathematical Modeling Institute
• USDA NIFA National Robotics Initiative
• Canadian National Institute for the Blind Baker New Researcher Award (2011)

Her collaborative research involves interdisciplinary teams across ophthalmology, epidemiology, and engineering departments at Western University, with strong partnerships at Lawson Health Research Institute. Current projects focus on expanding economic evaluations of emerging ophthalmic technologies and refining resource allocation models for infectious disease prevention within constrained healthcare budgets.