Vishal Ahuja - Research

Vishal Ahuja

Publications (including Forthcoming)

(*indicates student/postdoc)

Ahuja, V., C. A. Alvarez, and B. R. Staats. “When Does Collocation of Physical and Mental Health Services Matter?” Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, 2025. [link]
- Award: Winner, Dlin/Fischer Clinical Research Award, Academy of Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry (ACLP), given to the best oral paper submission to the ACLP annual meeting, 2021
- Talk: Psychiatry Grand Rounds Presentation, University of Texas
- Media Coverage: Cox Today, D CEO Healthcare, Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise
Banerjee, S., A. Gupta, M. Jeong, D. F. Vazquez, S. Abdullah, B. R. Grimsley, R. J. Parmar, V. Ahuja, R. C. Stoler, A. Pandey. "Risk of Cardiovascular Events Using the SMART Polyvascular Disease Risk Score."The Journal of the American College of Cardiology (JACC) : Advances, 5(2):102508, 2026. [link]
Ahuja, V., Y. Alan, and M. Arikan. “The Role of Route-Level Decisions in the Efficiency and Resilience of Airline Operations: Evidence from the Wright Amendment Repeal.” Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, 2025; 27(2): 460-478. [link]
- Media Coverage: KU News, Blog (View From the Wing), Cox Today,
Yun, J.,* V. Ahuja, and D. F. Heitjan. “Predicting hospital readmission in Medicaid patients with heart failure using administrative and claims data.” Perspectives in Health Information Management. 20(3), 2023. [link]
Yun, J.,* G. Filardo, V. Ahuja, M.E. Bowen, D. F. Heitjan. “Predicting hospital readmission in Medicaid patients with diabetes using administrative and claims data.” The American Journal of Managed Care, 29(8), August 2023. (2021 Impact Factor = 3.247.) [link]
Ahuja, V., A. Akunna, E. Halm, and C. Alvarez. “Association of Medical Tests Use with Care Continuity in Primary Care Service: Evidence from the Department of Veterans Affairs.” Family Practice, 40(2): 338–344, April 2023. [link]
Ettari, S. V., E. Roden, V. Ahuja, and U. Samadani. “Oculogica: An Eye-Catching Innovation in Health Care and The Privacy Implications Of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning in Diagnostics For The Human Brain.” SMU Science & Technology Law Review, 25(1): 23, 2022. [link]
Ahuja, V., C. A. Alvarez, and B. R. Staats. “An Operations Approach for Reducing Glycemic Variability: Evidence from a Primary Care Setting.” Manufacturing & Service Operations Management. 24(3): 474-1493, May-June 2022. [link]
- Award: Honorable Mention, POMS College of Healthcare Operations Management Best Paper Competition, 2020
Ahuja, V., C. A. Alvarez, J. R. Birge, and C. Syverson. “Enhancing Regulatory Decision-Making for Postmarket Drug Safety.” Management Science, 67(12): 7472-7492, 2021. [link]
- Award: Finalist, POMS College of Healthcare Operations Management Best Paper Competition, 2016
- Media Coverage: SMU Cox Magazine , Chicago Booth Review, INFORMS Press Release
Bountali, O.*, S. Cetinkya, and V. Ahuja. “On the Impact of Treatment Restrictions for the Indigent Suffering from a Chronic Disease: The Case of Compassionate Dialysis.” Service Science, 13(3):133-154, 2021. [link]
- Media Coverage: D CEO Healthcare
Kamalzadeh, H.*, V. Ahuja, M. Hahsler, and M. E. Bowen. “An Analytics-Driven Approach For Optimal Individualized Diabetes Screening.” Production and Operations Management, 30(9): 3161-3191, 2021. [link]
- Media Coverage: SMU News,D Magazine
Ahuja, V., C. A. Alvarez, and B. R. Staats. “Maintaining Continuity in Service: An Empirical Examination of Primary Care Physicians.” Manufacturing & Service Operations Management,22(5): 1088-1106, September–October 2020.[link]
- Media Coverage: SMU Cox Magazine, D CEO Healthcare, INFORMS Press Release
Ahuja, V. and J. R. Birge. “Approximation methods for Markov Decision Processes with Application to Clinical Trial Design.” INFORMS Journal on Computing, 32(4): 877-894, 2020. [link] [Matlab Code]
- Awards: Runner-up, POMS College of Healthcare Operations Management Best Paper Competition, 2018
- Editor Highlight: Selected as one of 3 papers of "timely importance" by the Editor-in-Chief of the journal, 2020
- Media Coverage: SMU Cox Magazine, D CEO Healthcare
Ahuja, V. and J. R. Birge. “Response-Adaptive Designs for Clinical Trials: Simultaneous Learning from Multiple Patients.” European Journal of Operational Research, 248: 619-633, 2016. [link]
- Awards: Winner (INFORMS Pierskalla Award for the Best Paper in Healthcare), Semifinalist (INFORMS Innovation in Analytics Award), Finalist (Lee Lusted Prize, Society for Medical Decision Making), all 2012
- Media Coverage: Chicago Booth Magazine
Ahuja, V. and C.-H. Chou “Novel Therapeutics for Diabetes: Uptake, Usage Trends, and Comparative Effectiveness.” Current Diabetes Reports, 16(6): 1-10, 2016. [link]
Ahuja, V., M.-W. Sohn, J. R. Birge, C. Syverson, E. Budiman-Mak, N. Emanuele, J. M. Cooper, and E. S. Huang. “Geographic Variation in Rosiglitazone use Surrounding FDA Warnings in the Department of Veterans Affairs.” J Manag Care Spec Pharm, 21(12): 1214-34, 2015. [link]
- Media Coverage: Chicago Booth Magazine
- Cited by: FDA expert panel workshop on drug safety

Working Papers

(*indicates student/postdoc)

Jia, Z.*, K. Hu, J.Q. Hu, and V. Ahuja. “To What Extent Do Workers’ Preferences Matter?” 2026. R&R. [link]

- Finalist, INFORMS Service Science Best Cluster Paper Award, 2021
- Honorable Mention*, POMS College of Behavior in Operations Management Junior paper competition, 2021
- 2nd Place, INFORMS Behavioral Operations Management Section Best Working Paper Award, 2020

Lan, Y., V. Ahuja, A. Chandrasekaran. “Primary Care Visit Regularity: How and When Does it Matter?” 2026. Under Review.
Lowrey, J., B. Grant, V. Ahuja, I. Eneli. “Place-based care continuity and childhood obesity.” 2026. Under Revision.
Adams, K.,* Y. Yang,* G.-G. Garcia, A. Roy, X.-L. Leong,* D. Chung, V. Ahuja. “Predicting Pediatric Surgical Case Duration Using Machine Learning: Leveraging Team Dynamics and Case Flow Attributes,” 2026. Under Review.

- Presentation: 137th Annual Meeting of the Southern Surgical Association, Hot Springs, VA (December, 2025)
- Conference: Extended abstract accepted at 59th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS), Hawaii (January 2026).

Proceedings / Other Publications

(*indicates student/postdoc)

Adams, K.*, Y. Yang*, G.-G. Garcia, A. Roy, X.-L. Leong*, D. Chung, and V. Ahuja. Predicting pediatric surgical case duration using machine learning: Leveraging team dynamics and operational features. In Proceedings of the 59th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, Jan 6-10, 2026, pp. 3494-3503. [link].
Ahuja, V., A. Goad, S. Miff, T. Sullivan. “Health Equity: More Than a DEI Issue.” INFORMS OR/MS Today. Vol. 50 (4). Fall 2023. [link] https://doi.org/10.1287/orms.2023.04.17
Ahuja, V., J. R. Birge J., and Ryan C. “Approximation Methods for Determining Optimal Allocations in Response Adaptive Clinical Trials.” In Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Operations Research and Enterprise Systems,Angers, Loire Valley, France,March 6-8, 2014, pp. 460-465.[link]
Ahuja, V. and J. R. Birge. “Designing Fully Adaptive Clinical Trials.” Proceedings of the 7th INFORMS Workshop on Data Mining and Health Informatics (DM-HI 2012) H. Yang, D. Zeng, O. E. Kundakcioglu, eds.
Ahuja, V., Z. Tan, K. M. Weishar, and D. W. Reeve. “Oxygen Delignification as Affected by Novel Transition Metal Catalysts.” Pulp & Paper Canada, 103(7): 40, 2002.

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