Lauren Aquino Shluzas, PhD is a Veterans Affairs Postdoctoral Fellow at Stanford University’s Center for Health Policy, and the VA Palo Alto Healthcare System. Her research interests focus on studying and optimizing complex systems and services, with an emphasis in the healthcare field. Lauren aims to combine her background in engineering with her interest in health services research to improve the usability, quality, and adoption of healthcare products and services, at a reduced cost to users and stakeholders. Specific areas of interest include healthcare technology assessment, and socio-technical systems analysis and re-design. Lauren earned a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University, with a minor in Management Science & Engineering. Her doctoral thesis examined design and development strategies that influence the clinical and financial outcomes of early stage medical device companies. She earned a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from MIT, and a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford. Lauren’s industrial experience includes serving as a Senior Engineer at Omnisonics Medical Technologies, a company that developed ultrasonic treatments for vascular occlusive disease. Prior to that, Lauren was a Product Development Engineer for the Minimally Invasive Surgery Group at Johnson & Johnson's Depuy Spine. In that role, she designed and developed implants and instruments for spinal fusion surgery. Lauren had previously served as an Engineering Analyst for Boeing’s Flight Crew Systems Division.