Seminar – Data Driven Healthcare, Big And Small

Dr Z. Justin Ren, Boston University Questrom School of Business

In this seminar, Dr Ren will present two recent empirical papers on healthcare that are co-authored with his colleagues. One paper uses “small data”, for example, data collected within a hospital, to uncover the relationship between hospital internal operations and its quality outcome. The other paper uses “big data”, for example, a nationwide healthcare insurance claim data set, to study the cost implications of high deductible health plans.

Details on the two published papers are as follows:
Zheng, S., Tucker A. L., Ren, Z.J., Heineke, J., McLaughlin, A., Podell, A. L. 2018. The impact of internal service quality on preventable adverse events in hospitals. Production and Operations Management 27(12):2201-2212.

Zheng S., Ren, Z. J., Heineke, J., and Geissler, K. 2016. Reductions in diagnostic imaging with high deductible health plans. Medical Care 54(2):110-7 (Lead Article)

Speaker bio

Z. Justin Ren is an Associate Professor of Business Administration at Boston University Questrom School of Business, and a faculty researcher at Boston University Institute of Sustainable Energy (ISE). He was also a Research Affiliate at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Sloan School of Management (2009-2014).

At Boston University, Dr Ren teaches Core operations management courses and a data analytics course that helps managers gain market intelligence and make strategic decisions. He also teaches in executive education in financial risk management. He is a certified teacher by the Harvard Business School Case Method Discussion Leadership Program.

Dr Ren’s research focuses on supply chain coordination, healthcare service quality, and clean energy transition. His research has appeared in publications such as Management Science, Operations Research, Production and Operations Management, and Medical Care. He has received several recognitions, including the INFORMS George B. Dantzig Dissertation Award, INFORMS Junior Faculty Paper Competition Award, and the Production and Operations Management Society (POMS) Wickham Skinner Early-Career Research Accomplishments Award. His consulting clients include INTEL, Staples, BestBuy, Payless Rental Car, PWC, among others.

Dr Ren received his MA degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, his MS and PhD in Operations and Information Management from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.