Welcome to Hui Zhao’s website

  • HuiZhao-websiteProfessor of Supply Chain Management

Charles and Lilian Binder Faculty Fellow

Co-Director for Research, Center for Supply Chain  Research

Supply Chain and Information Systems

Smeal College of Business
The Pennsylvania State University


419 Business Building
University Park, PA  16802
(Tel) 814-863-1940
huz10@psu.edu

Many complex supply chain problems are difficult to solve because they involve multiple agents with misaligned incentives. My research develops quantitative models and apply analytics that distill the complex interactions among decentralized agents and proposes mechanisms that align incentives, induce collaboration, and thus, improve supply chain efficiency. My work focuses on “messy” problems of practical importance, aiming for not only academic contributions but also broader impact.

Most of my research focuses on healthcare/pharmaceutical (pharma) supply chains, health public policy, and innovations in healthcare (e.g., telehealth, online platforms, and applying new technology such as machine learning in healthcare/pharma), although some of my earlier works also look at other traditional supply chains. I work on problems highly important for the pharma industry and the society such as Drug shortages, Illicit online pharmacy, High drug pricing and new drug reimbursement policy (e.g., outcome-based reimbursement policy), Innovative drug approval policies (accelerated approval and compliance to post-market studies), Serving sexual assaulted victims through telemedicine, Using new technology in drug development, Fee-for-service contracting in pharma, Distribution strategies of specialty drugs, and Online markets for drugs and medical devices.

I employ rigorous and suitable methodologies for each specific problem I study, varying from analytical models, econometric models, to other analytics models. My work incorporates proprietary and public data in various ways and embraces state-of-the-art techniques such as advanced machine learning and web analytics. In conducting research, I engage extensively with external stakeholders (business and government agencies) to develop deep understanding of the problems I study and to devise meaningful solutions. While such immersion is extremely time-consuming, I believe it advances the frontiers of knowledge and brings long-term impact.

My work has received a few awards including finalist for the Pierskalla award 2015, the runner-up for the Ralph Gomory Best Industry Studies Paper Award 2017, SCOR innovation award from Smeal/Penn State 2018, and Finalist for the Best Dissertation award for Industry Studies for her PhD student (Liang “Leon” Xu) 2020. My works on drug shortages has been well received by FDA and the academic world, winning multiple academic prizes. I apply analytical models, econometrics models, and other analytics models, using proprietary and public data.

Aside from healthcare, I am generally interested in incentives and contracts, collaboration in decentralized supply chains, and information asymmetry. I am also interested in the behavioral aspects of decision making, looking into how human decision makers would deviate from optimal decisions, hence better design our systems.

In addition to making contributions to the academic domain, I have engaged extensively  with government and industry to contribute to their informed decisions. Most of my healthcare research has public policy implications. I have been on the FDA listening panel for drug shortages (other panelists are from MIT economics, Duke health policy, and Johns Hopkins Pharmacy). I have gone multiple times to the Department of Health and Human Services to present my research work. I have also been actively involved with the Xavier-Industry Healthcare Artificial Intelligence Consortium, serving as a co-lead for the CLS pharma sub-team in 2017-2018, and is also a member of the Academic Council for Healthcare Supply Chain Research for AHRMM (Association for Healthcare Resource & Materials Management).

I organize the Pharmaceutical/Healthcare research focus group, sponsored by the Smeal College Supply Chain Research Center. This focus group attracts top pharma industry players and healthcare supply chain providers and aims at bridging the gap between pharma/healthcare industry challenges and academic research. I have worked with Caterpillar, Proctor and Gamble, CVS, AmerisourceBurgen, IntegrinChain, Medshorts, and other industry firms.

I serve as a senior editor or associate editor for top academic journals in my field. I am a senior editor for Production and Operations Management, an Associate editor for Manufacturer and Service Operations Management, Decision Sciences, and Naval Research Logistics. I am a member of INFORMS (MSOM and HAS) and POMS and served as the HAS (Healthcare Applications Society)’s Communications and Outreach Coordinator for two terms 2019-2020.

My teaching interests are business analytics, supply chain analytics, supply chain/operations management, and healthcare supply chains/operations. I have taught in the undergraduate, MBA, and PhD programs. Prior to joining the faculty of Smeal College of Business at Penn State University, I had been on faculty with Krannert School of Management at Purdue University.

Use tabs on the top to view details of my research and teaching profile.