Ajit Appari, Ph.D., MTech, BTech
University Affiliation:
Lecturer/ Adjunct Faculty at
Northeastern University - College of Professional Studies
Links to my:
Google Scholar Profile ; ORCID Profile
Embedded Files
Professional Contact:
aappari.work[AT]gmail.com
Teaching Interests:
Business Analytics, Data Science, Information Systems,
Health Information Technology, and Healthcare Management
Research Interests:
Applied Machine Learning, Healthcare Analytics, Multimorbidity,
Socioeconomic Determinants, Priority Population
Economics of Health IT,
Economics of Information Security
I'm on the faculty of the Northeastern University College of Professional Studies, and enjoy teaching the next generations of business analytics/informatics professionals the nuances of Data Analytics (Descriptive, Predictive, and Prescriptive), and Data/Information Management using a combination of open-source technologies- R, Python, MySQL, SQLite, and RStudio. Post Covid-19, I taught business analytics course at the Boston University Metropolitan College as well. My research focuses on two themes: the value and risk of information technology; and the socioeconomics of health and health care delivery. Further, I was privileged to serve on the editorial boards of Electronic Commerce Research and Applications and the Health Systems journal, and on the leadership committee of the Academy of Management - Healthcare Management division.
Current Updates:
2025:
April- June:
Teaching "ALY6980 Capstone", a 12 weeks Capstone course, for the MS in Analytics program at Northeastern University during Fall term (April 07 - June 28). Students are expected to develop analytics solutions to solve real world business problems by working with corporate partners. In this term, I supervised students to develop healthcare analytics solutions using the CMS - Medicare Claims Synthetic Public Use Files (SynPUFs), a unique data course released by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services to allow interested parties to gain familiarity using Medicare claims data while protecting beneficiary privacy. The data structure of the Medicare SynPUFs is very similar to the CMS Limited Data Sets, but with a smaller number of variables. They provide data entrepreneurs, data analysts, and software developers the opportunity to develop programs and products utilizing the identical formats and variable names as those which appear in the actual CMS data files. Likewise, healthcare researchers can be trained on the use and complexity of conducting analyses with CMS claims data
Teaching "ALY 6020 Predictive Analytics" course using Python/ Jupyter Lab for the MS in Analytics program at Northeastern University during Spring-A term (April 07 - May 17).
Teaching "ALY 6040 Data Mining Applications" using R & RStudio for the MS in Analytics program at Northeastern University during Spring-B term (May 19 - June 28). In this course, students are exposed to various data mining tools including decision tree, random forests, logistic regression, association rule mining, linear discriminant analysis, cluster analysis, text mining, and support vector machines.
2024:
August - Dec:
Taught "ALY6980 Capstone", a 12 weeks Capstone course, for the MS in Analytics program at Northeastern University during Fall term (September 16 - December 14). Students are expected to develop analytics solutions to solve real world business problems by working with corporate partners. In this term, I supervised students to develop healthcare analytics solutions using the CMS - Medicare Claims Synthetic Public Use Files (SynPUFs), a unique data course released by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services to allow interested parties to gain familiarity using Medicare claims data while protecting beneficiary privacy. The data structure of the Medicare SynPUFs is very similar to the CMS Limited Data Sets, but with a smaller number of variables. They provide data entrepreneurs, data analysts, and software developers the opportunity to develop programs and products utilizing the identical formats and variable names as those which appear in the actual CMS data files. Likewise, healthcare researchers can be trained on the use and complexity of conducting analyses with CMS claims data
Taught one section of "ALY 6030 Data Warehousing and SQL" course using MySQL for MS in Analytics program at Northeastern University during Fall-B term (October 28 - December 14). In this course, besides the conventional assignments, I used the CMS - Medicare Claims Synthetic Public Use Files (SynPUFs) to help students understand the nuances of data warehousing problems solving within the healthcare analytics domain.
Taught one section of "ALY 6020 Predictive Analytics" course using R & RStudio for MS in Analytics program at Northeastern University during Fall-A term (September 16 - October 16).
Taught one section of "ALY 6030 Data Warehousing and SQL" course using MySQL for MS in Analytics program at Northeastern University during Summer term (July 08 - August 17).
April - July:
Taught "ALY 6040 Data Mining Applications" for the MS in Analytics program at Northeastern University during Spring-A term (April 08 - May 18). In this course, students are exposed to various data mining tools including decision tree, random forests, logistic regression, association rule mining, linear discriminant analysis, cluster analysis, text mining, and support vector machines.
Taught "ALY 6110 Data Management and Big Data" for the MS in Analytics program at Northeastern University during Spring-B term (May 20 - June 29). In this introductory course, students are exposed to the concepts and experience of data collection and management using big data technologies including cloud based services like Azure and Cloudera.
Taught "ALY6080 Integrated Experiential Learning", a 12 weeks Capstone course, for the MS in Analytics program at Northeastern University during Spring term (April 08 - June 29). Students are expected to develop analytics solutions to solve real world business problems by working with corporate partners. In this course, students worked with Schneider Electric for developing analytics solutions in the area of smart alarm management for energy management. We had Sreedhar Sistu, VP- AI Offer at Schneider Electric speak to my students about their artificial intelligence initiatives.
Invited Talk at the 53rd Northeastern Decision Science Institute Annual Meeting, Apr 04-06, Cambridge, MA. My talk was based on a healthcare analytics based project titled "Polypharmacy Risk in Working-Age Women: Role of Multimorbidity Patterns & Care Coordination Factors".
Invited Talk at the 34th Production and Operations Management Society (POMS) Annual Meeting, Apr 26-29, Minneapolis, MN. My talks were based on two healthcare analytics based project titled "Predicting Hospital-Acquired Conditions Among Children with Multiple Chronic Conditions: Individual Disparity and Structural Racism Effects" and "Machine Learning Modeling of Hospital-Acquired Conditions for Elderly Adults with Multiple Chronic Conditions." Additionally, I also attended one-day one day mini-conference SYNAPSE: Applied Healthcare Operations Management & Research Conference hosted by the Healthcare Operations Management group of POMS.
January - May:
Taught one section of "AD571 Business Analytics Foundations" at BU MET College. The course covers descriptive analytics, predictive analytics, and prescriptive analytics. Students develop analytics solution and recommendations for opening a real estate business in the New York City market public dataset of real estate transactions [tools used: using R/RStudio, Power BI, SQL Server, and MS Excel Solver].
January - March:
Taught "ALY6000 Introduction to Analytics" course for the MS in Analytics program at Northeastern University. This is an introductory course that exposes students to fundamentals of analytics including data ingestion, data cleaning, data wrangling, sampling, visualization, data summarization, probability theory and probability distributions.
Taught "ALY 6980 Capstone" course during the Winter quarter. Students worked on their capstone project with Arbit Inc., a leading provider of pricing intelligence and data analytics for the sneaker resale market. Students conducted exploratory data analytics, developed dashboard prototype, and prediction models for price premium in the resale market.
2023:
September - December:
Taught two sections of "AD571 Business Analytics Foundations" at BU MET College. The course covers descriptive analytics, predictive analytics, and prescriptive analytics. Students develop analytics solution and recommendations for opening a real estate business in the New York City market public dataset of real estate transactions [tools used: using R/RStudio, Power BI, SQL Server, and MS Excel Solver].
Taught "ALY6080 Integrated Experiential Learning" (~Capstone) and "ALY6980 Capstone" courses for the MS in Analytics program at Northeastern University. Students are expected to develop analytics solutions to solve real world business problems by working with corporate partners.
Presented my research at INFORMS 2023 Annual Meeting, Oct 14-18, Phoenix, AZ.
Presented my research at Decision Science Institute Annual Meeting, Nov 18-20, Atlanta, GA
April - July:
Taught two sections of ALY6080 Integrated Experiential Learning (~Capstone) for the MS in Analytics program at Northeastern University. Students developed analytics solutions to solve real world business problems by working with corporate partners including Schneider Electric (smart alarm management for energy management), DocDigitizer (detection of out of pattern service request for intelligent document processing system), and the 5 Gyres Institute (identification of sources of plastic pollution).
Jan - May:
Taught the "AD 571 Business Analytics Foundation" course using R/RStudio, Power BI, SQL Server, and MS Excel for the Applied Business Analytics program at Boston University during Spring 2023.
2022:
September - December:
Taught the "AD 571 Business Analytics Foundation" course using R/RStudio, Power BI, SQL Server, and MS Excel for the Applied Business Analytics program at Boston University during Fall 2022.
Joined the Administrative Science department at Boston University Metropolitan College as a part-time faculty to teach graduate courses in the Applied Business Analytics program.
April - July:
Taught "ALY 6980 Capstone" course during the Winter quarter. Students worked on their capstone project with Schneider Electric (development of classification models for power devices failure alarms) and Georgetown Analytics and Technology (development of prediction models for the individual performance of sports players to enable talent management).
January - April (Winter Term):
Taught "ALY 6015 Intermediate Analytics" course using R & RSTudio in for MS in Analytics program at Northeastern University during Winter-A term.
Taught "ITC 6000 Database Management Systems" for MS in Informatics, and MS in Analytics programs during Winter-A and Winter-B terms.
Taught "ALY 6980 Capstone" course during the Winter quarter. Students worked on their capstone projects with Ascensus, LLC, a leading financial services company (development of predictive artificial intelligence models for customer churn in the retirements & savings plans).
2021:
September - December:
Taught "ALY 6020 Predictive Analytics" course using R & RStudio for MS in Analytics program at Northeastern University during Fall-A term (September 20 - October 30) and Fall-B term (November 01 - December 18).
Taught "ALY 3015 Intermediate Statistics for Data Analytics" course using R & RStudio for BS in Analytics program at Northeastern University during Fall semester (September 09 - December 18)
Taught two sections of "ITC 6000 Database Management Systems" for MS in Informatics, and MS in Analytics programs during Fall-B term (November 01 - December 18).
September 15: My father, Sayanarayana Appari, passed away after a long battle with multiple myeloma (however, the final cause of death was acute pneumonia). Earlier during the second wave of Covid-19 he was in the ICU for three weeks when my mother Anantha Satya Lakshmi passwed away due to Covid-19 infection. He was born (in 1942) and raised in a farmer's family in Devarapalli, a small village in the West Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh, India. He migrated in 1965 for work to Bilaspur, Madhya Pradesh (now in Chattisgarh state since the bifurcation of Madhya Pradesh in 2000). After completing his high school (11 years of schooling), he completed a diploma for vocational training instructors from the Central Staff Training and Research Institute, Calcutta, India, and worked as Instructor of Engineering Drawing at Industrial Training Institutes (ITI) in Koni and Bhilai Chattisgarh, India. During his professional tenure (1965 - 1990s), he was very active in the labor union of ITI instructors of Madhya Pradesh state and led their union as President for several years during the 1980's. He led the ITI instructors' union several times on demonstrations at the state capital Bhopal (of Madhuya Pradesh) to improve working conditions of instructors, including one union strike involving fast unto death. He was instrumental in negotiating salaray reform for ITI instructors with the state government of Madhya Pradesh. Coincidentally, he had a near miss with Bhopal Gas Tragdey (1984) since he left the city on the night of December 2nd to return home after leading a successfull negotiation meeting with the state government. My father's teaching career as ITI instructor was one of the main influencing reason for me to pursue academic career.
July - August:
Taught "EAI 6010 Applications of Artificial Intelligence" during Summer (July 12 - Aug 21) at Northeastern University College of Professional Studies.
May - July:
Taught "ALY 6015 Intermediate Analytics" during Spring-B term (May 24-Jul 10) at Northeastern University College of Professional Studies.
April:
My mother, Ananta Satya Lakshmi, passed away: The second wave of COVID-19 in India has taken its toll on my family. Earlier this week on April 12th, my mother (72 yrs old) passed away, while my father (~80 yrs old) is still under treatment. My niece (22yrs old) tested positive. It was quite frustrating that I couldn't visit my family in this challenging situation.
February:
Nominated for "Excellence in Teaching 2021" award by graduate students at Northeastern University College of Professional Studies.
2020:
October-December:
Taught "ALY 6020 Predictive Analytics" course using R & RSTudio in for MS in Analytics program at Northeastern University.
March:
2020 AcademyHealth Annual Research Meeting accepted two abstracts - one for podium presentation, and another for poster presentation.
Successfully transitioned to online teaching because of the COVID-19. I'm surprised to see that I could actually deliver almost 4 hours nonstop lecture in the online mode. Often my talk exceeded the regular 3 hour session and yet it was fun.
2019:
November:
Nov 15-16: Presented my latest research (in collaboration with Prof. Eric Johnson @ Vanderbilt) at the 10th Conference on Health IT and Analytics held in Washington DC on the association of EHR meaningful use and information security controls with time-sensitive emergency care process quality measures. Also chaired a session on the topic "Data Security and Privacy Research Panel".
October:
Taught two sections of a 6 weeks graduate course "ITC 6000 Database Management Systems" at Northeastern University for MS in Informatics, and MS in Analytics programs.
Oct 20-23: Presented two research posters at 2019 INFORMS Annual Meeting being held in Seattle. First poster is a joint collaboration with Dr. Eric Johnson at Vanderbilt titled "Effect of EHR Use and Information Security Controls on Time-sensitive Emergency Care Process Quality at US Hospitals", and another is a solo authored poster titled "Association of Information Technology Use and Provider Characteristics with Opioid Prescribing Rates in The United States".
July:
July 27-29: Presented two of my work-in-progress research at the 2019 INFORMS Healthcare conference at Cambridge hosted by MIT & MGH.
June:
June 30: My affiliation with the Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) came to a conclusion. It was wonderful and professionally enriching experience for me to teach IT courses in STEM oriented graduate and undergraduate programs at WPI.
June 11: I am humbled to be joining Owen Business School at Vanderbilt University as Research Assistant Professor. During the summer term, I will collaborate with Dean Eric Johnson on a research project examining the impact of information security on hospitals' time-sensitive process outcomes across heterogeneous regulatory environment in the United States.
June 2-4: presented my in-progress research at the AcademyHealth annual research meeting (solo authored and/or in collaboration with faculty at University of Central Florida).
February:
Feb 16: Presented a research talk on the "social determinants of health and health care delivery to people with multiple chronic conditions" at the Foisie School of Business@WPI- Teaching and Research Innovation Exchange:
2018:
Nov 4-7: Presented a paper at INFORMS-2018 at Phoenix titled "Socioeconomic Determinants of Health Information Technology Enabled Patient-Provider Engagement Among Patient With Multimorbidity" [coauthored with Dr. Meghan Hufstader-Gabriel, University of Central Florida].
Oct 19-20: Presented a research paper at the Conference on Health IT and Analytics (hosted by the University of Maryland) titled "Polypharmacy and Care Coordination Intensity among Working-age American Adults with Multiple Chronic Conditions," coauthored with Dr. Maria Ukhanova.
Aug 20: Joined the Robert A. Foisie School of Business at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Teaching courses on Creating Values through Innovation (undergrad), Database Applications Development (Grad), and Innovating with Information Systems (grad) this Fall semester.
Aug 10-14: Attended Academy of Management Annual Meeting at Chicago. It was a fun week meeting with colleagues and connecting with emerging scholars. I had two work-in-progress research discussed with senior scholars in the Research Incubator session held by Health Care Management division - titled "EHR Meaningful Use and Organizational Performance: Moderating Effects of Patient Safety Culture in US Hospitals." [coauthored with Dr. Xin Ding, Rutgers], and "How Philanthropic are They? The Impact of Directors' Professional Background on the Performance of Nonprofit Hospitals" [coauthored with Dr. Zheng Wang].
June: Named Senior Editor for the Electronic Commerce Research and Applications. Read the announcement here @UTHealth News, and @ASPPH Newsletter.
June 23-26: Attended AcademyHealth Annual Research Meeting in Seattle, WA.
June 6-8: Attended Annual Meeting of Organization Theory in Healthcare Association, Johns Hopkins Carey Business School, Baltimore, MD
May 14-18: Attended Social Networks and Health Workshop at Duke University hosted by Duke Network Analysis Center.
Feb 27-28: Traveled to San Francisco to attend NIH review panel for the Health Disparities and Equity Promotion study section. [updated 5/7/18]
2017:
Nov 03: My latest paper, in collaboration with faculty at Vanderbilt and Dartmouth, is forthcoming in the International Journal of Medical Informatics. Appari A, Johnson ME, Anthony DL. (2018) “Health IT and Inappropriate Utilization of Outpatient Imaging: A Cross-sectional Study of US Hospitals." International Journal of Medical Informatics, 109: 87-95. {Impact Factor: 3.210}.
Oct 21- Oct 25: Presented two research papers at the INFORMS 2017 annual meeting being held at Houston TX. First paper is a joint collaboration with my former doctoral student (Maria Ukhanova, PhD, MD, MPA) examining the patterns of multiple chronic conditions in the working-age population (across three birth cohorts- Younger Baby Boomers, Older Baby Boomers, and Generation-X/Millennials) in Texas and their association with community-level socioeconomic factors. Second paper is a solo-authored work-in-progress paper that examines the association of organizational and environmental factors (based on upper echelon and institutional theories) with nursing home facilities' deviant behavior (sluggishness in resolving payment denial related quality issues).
Oct 13: Maria Ukhanova, PhD, MD MPA, my doctoral student, has successfully defended her dissertation [titled: Care Coordination and Polypharmacy among working-age adults with multiple chronic conditions] on Oct 12, 2017, and has joined Oregon Health & Science University's School of Medicine as Postdoctoral Fellow. My hearty congratulations to Maria on her graduation.
July 24 - Aug 11: attended an NSF-IMA sponsored workshop "Industrial Mathematics Workshop and Clinic: Collaboratively Tacking Emerging Problems in Industry" hosted by University of Minnesota Twin Cities. The workshop offers excellent opportunity to work on important problems facing industries including health care.
June 14-16: presented my latest work-in-progress research at the 2017 Organization Theory in Health Care Association Meeting hosted by UC Berkeley.
June 17-26: work vacation in Seattle, WA. It was nice to be away from the hot/humid weather of Houston and hike in the Tiger Mountain State Forest and Lake Sammamish.
2016:
Nov 12-17: It was wonderful to attend the 2016-INFORMS conference held in the "music city" Nashville, TN. Besides presenting my research (in collaboration with Drs. Xin Ding [Penn State Behrend] and Rajender Aparasu [University of Houston]) in the poster session, I had the opportunity to interact with several young minds who are working to solve interesting problems in the domain of health care by using operations research and econometrics.
Before 2015:
Best Abstract Research Award in 2013 @AcademyHealth (Health IT Special Interest Group): my research presentation titled "Health Information Technology and Hospital Performance on Imaging-Use Measures" received Best Abstract Research award from the Health Information Technology special interest group during 2013 AcademyHealth Annual Research Meeting, June 22, 2013, Baltimore, MD.
Top downloaded article in 2013 @HSR: my article titled "Meaningful Use of Electronic Health Record Systems and Process Quality of Care: Evidence from a Panel Data Analysis of U.S. Acute-Care Hospitals" published in the journal Health Services Research was one of the top downloaded article in 2013. [updated: HSR site does not show this statistic any longer]
Editor's Choice @ JAMIA: my article titled "Medication Administration Quality and Health Information Technology: A National Study of US Hospitals" published in the JAMIA received "Editor's Choice" honor and was made freely available to readers by the journal's editor-in-chief.
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