Hui Zhao
Professor of Supply Chain Management
Charles and Lilian Binder Faculty Fellow
Professor Zhao’s research applies analytics to the healthcare systems with particular interests in pharmaceutical supply chains, public policy, and innovative design of healthcare systems (using new technologies, machine learning and AI to address healthcare problems). Most of her work looks at the incentive misalignment in the healthcare value chain, seeking solutions to resolve such problems. She works on high-impact problems such as the US drug shortages, high drug pricing, illicit online pharmacy, using telehealth to help sexual assaulted victims, accelerated drug approval, among other topics. She is keenly interested in applying new technology in studying these problems to overcome data challenges in the industry. Her work has been published in the top journals in her field and has received multiple awards including a finalist for the prestigious Pierskalla award by INFORMS in 2015, the runner-up for the Ralph Gomory Best Industry Studies Paper Award by the Industry Studies Association (ISA) in 2018, winner of the SCOR innovation award from Smeal/Penn State in 2018, and finalist for the Industry Studies Dissertation award for her PhD student in 2020. In addition to academic contributions, her work also seeks to help government agencies and industry to make informed decisions. She has been invited by FDA on expert panel for drug shortages and has gone to the Department of Health and Human Services multiple times to make presentations. Zhao is also actively involved with industry consortiums such as Xavier Health’s Artificial Intelligence Applications in Healthcare Initiative.
Expertise
Healthcare Analytics and AI Pharmaceutical Supply Chain Health Public Policy Innovative Design of Healthcare Systems Incentives and Contracts
Education
Ph D in Industrial Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, 2003-08-01 MS in Industrial Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, 2002-12-01 CERT in Applied Management Principles (Mini-MBA), Purdue University, Krannert Graduate School of Management, West Lafayette, Indiana, 2001-05-01
Courses Taught
BA 512 – Risk and Decisions
Construction and use of quantitative methods in business decision-making.
BA 580 – DBA Culminating Res Project
This course provides Doctorate of Business Administration students with the opportunity to identify a practice problem or clinical question and investigate the literature related to this selected area of interest. Students will develop and implement a comprehensive project to address the problem. Students will also disseminate the results in both a scholarly presentation and manuscript for publication.
BA 597 – Special Topics
Formal courses given on a topical or special interest subject which may be offered infrequently.
SC&IS 596 – Individual Studies
Creative projects, including nonthesis research, that are supervised on an individual basis and which fall outside the scope of formal courses. A specific title may be used in each instance and will be entered on the student's transcript.
SCIS 501 – Business Analytics
SCIS 501 develops students¿ understanding of and ability to apply a variety of business analytic tools and techniques to describe data, make predictions, and prescribe optimal solutions. Students will explore some of the following topics: Data Visualization, Exploring Data with R, Regression simple and multiple, Logistic regression, Classification trees, Machine learning for regression (data adaptive), Deterministic optimization (linear, integer, nonlinear), Monte Carlo Simulation, Decision Analysis. These topics enable students to address issues in descriptive, predictive, and prescriptive business analytics. Students will learn how to bridge descriptive, predictive, prescriptive analytics across a variety of business scenarios. Software packages, concepts, and business applications will vary and evolve to keep pace with technology, theory, and instructor interest. This course is focused more on the methodological aspects of business analytics.
SCIS 596 – Individual Studies
Creative projects, including nonthesis research, that are supervised on an individual basis and which fall outside the scope of formal courses. A specific title may be used in each instance and will be entered on the student's transcript.
SCIS 597 – Special Topics
Formal courses given on a topical or special interest subject which may be offered infrequently; several different topics may be taught in one year or semester.
SCM 421 – Sc Analytics
Models and Methodologies for supply chain analysis. SCM 421 Supply Chain Analytics (3) This course provides a spreadsheet-based, example-driven approach to learn about important supply chain models, problems, and solution methodologies. The objectives of this course are: (1) to develop valuable modeling skills that students can appreciate and use effectively in their careers (2) reinforce and enrich your understanding of supply chain theories, principles, and concepts studied previously in foundation courses. Student evaluation is based on: (1) individual and team group performance on problem-based exercises (2) individual performance on examinations (3) class participation.
SCM 421 – Supply Chain Analytics
Models and Methodologies for supply chain analysis.
SCM 494H – Research Project (H)
Supervised student activities on research projects identified on an individual or small-group basis.
SCM 596 – Individual Studies
Creative projects, including nonthesis research, that are supervised on an individual basis and which fall outside the scope of formal courses.
Selected Publications
Zhao X., Jia Z., Zhao H. "Reimbursement Policy and Drug Shortages." Management Science, vol. 72, 2025-06-01
Naumov S., Noh I., Zhao H. "Evaluating Quality Reward and Other Interventions to Mitigate US Drug Shortage" Journal of Operations Management, vol. 71, 2024-10-01
Zhao H. "Pharmaceutical Supply Chain and Drug Shortages" INFORMS TutORials in Operations Research., 2023-09-01
Xu L., Mani V., Zhao H. "Not a Box of Nuts and Bolts: Distribution Channel Choice for Specialty Drugs." Production and Operations Management, 2023-02-01
Xu L., Li H., Zhao H. "Outcome-Based Drug Reimbursement: The Solution to High Drug Spending?" Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, vol. 24, 2022-01-01
Zhu X., Ninh A., Zhao H., Liu Z. "Demand Forecasting With Supply Chain Information and Machine Learning: Evidence in the Pharmaceutical Industry" Production and Operations Management, vol. 30, 2021-09-01
Zhao H., Xu L., Siemsen E. "Inventory Sharing and Demand-Side Underweighting" Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, vol. 23, 2021-09-01
Xu L., Zhao H., Petruzzi N. "Inducing Compliance with Post-market Study for Drugs under FDA’s Accelerated Approval Pathway" Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, vol. 23, 2021-01-01
Zhao H., Muthupandi S., Kumara S. "Managing Illicit Online Pharmacies Through Web Analytics and Predictive Models" Journal of Medical Internet Research, vol. 22, 2020-08-25
Jia Z., Zhao H. "Reflection on “Mitigating the U.S. Drug Shortages through Pareto-Improving Contracts”" Production and Operations Management, vol. 28, 2019-11-01
Thomas D., Zhao H. "From Stuffing to Streamlining: Pharmaceutical Distribution" Darden Business Case Library, 2019-01-01
Cho S., Zhao H. "Healthcare Supply Chains" Handbook of Healthcare Analytics: Theoretical Minimum for Conducting 21st Century Research on Healthcare Operations. Edited by S. Tayur and T. Dai., 2018-06-01
Jia Z., Zhao H. "Mitigating The US Drug Shortage: Contract Design and Operational Strategies" Production and Operations Management, vol. 26, 2017-01-01
Zhao H. "Supply Chain Optimization in Healthcare" Advances and Trends in Optimization with Engineering Applications, 2016-01-01
Yan X., Zhao H. "Inventory Collaboration and Coordination among n-Independent Retailers with Asymmetry Demand Information" European Journal of Operations Research, vol. 243, 2015-06-01
Yan X., Zhao H., Tang K. "Requirement or Promise? Quality-Based Supplier Selection with Quality Improvement" Production and Operations Management, vol. 24, 2015-06-01
Zeng B., Zhao H., Lawley M. "The Impact of Overbooking on Primary Care Patient No-show" IIE Transaction on Healthcare Systems Engineering, vol. 3, 2013-09-05
Zhao H., Xiong C., Gavirneni S., Fein A. "Fee-for-Service Contracts in Pharmaceutical Distribution Supply Chains: Design, Analysis, and Management" Manufacturing and Service Operations Management, vol. 14, 2012-10-01
Schwarz L., Zhao H. "The Unexpected Impact of Information-Sharing on US Pharmaceutical Supply-Chains" Interfaces, vol. 41, 2011-07-01
Yan X., Zhao H. "Decentralized Inventory Sharing with Asymmetric Information" Operations Research, vol. 59, 2011-06-01
Zhao H., Arnab B. "Optimal Operating Policies in A Commodity Trading Market with the Manufacturer’s Presence" Naval Research Logistics, vol. 57, 2010-03-01
Zhao H., Ryan J. K., Deshpande V. "Optimal Dynamic Production and Inventory Transshipment Policies for Multi-Location Make-to-Stock Systems" Operations Research, vol. 56, 2008-01-01
Zhao H., Deshpande V., Ryan J. K. "An Analysis of Emergency Transshipment in Decentralized Dealer Networks" Naval Research Logistics, vol. 53, 2006-09-01
Zhao H., Deshpande V., Ryan J. K. "Inventory Sharing and Rationing in Decentralized Dealer Networks" Management Science, vol. 51, 2005-04-01
Zhao H. "Simulation and Analysis of Dealer Returns Distribution Strategy" Proceedings of the Winter Simulation Conference 2001, vol. 2, 2001-12-01