Cohorts

Erfan Samaei, master’s student
Erfan’s primary interests include competition within healthcare and pharmaceutical markets and the impact of competitive strategies, such as M&A activity on healthcare market outcomes and societal welfare. Erfan received his BS in economics from University of California, Berkeley.

Email: samaei@usc.edu

Mohin Chanpura, PhD student
Mohin’s research interests lie in the optimization of preventative and treatment strategies for cancers and other aging-associated diseases. Mohin holds a BA in economics and MS in health outcomes, policy, and economics from Rutgers University.

Email: chanpura@usc.edu

Beier Chen, master’s student
Beier’s research interests include cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA), disease burden, formulary policy, drug pricing, and value assessment. With degrees in law and pharmacy, she brings a distinctive interdisciplinary background that supports her work in health economics and policy research.

Email: beierche@usc.edu 

Fanghong Huang, PhD student
PhD student Fanghong’s research interests lie in applied econometrics and causal inference within health economics, with emphasis on healthcare technology adoption, medical spending, and the evaluation of economic incentives and policy impacts that shape health behavior and outcomes. She received a master’s degree in economics from Columbia University and a BA in economics from Shandong University.

Email: huangfan@usc.edu

Yingwei Huang, master’s student
Yingwei received her bachelor’s degree in economics from the Institution for Economic and Social Research (IESR), Jinan University. Her research interests are mainly in the field of cost-effectiveness analysis (both methodology and applied), applied micro and behavioral economics in healthcare, quantitative health policy analysis and health equity.

Email: yingweih@usc.edu 

Yizhi Liang, PhD student
PhD student Yizhi’s research focuses on cost-effectiveness analysis, value of information analysis, causal inference, microsimulation, and Bayesian mathematical modeling. He works to enhance the evaluation of health outcomes and inform health decision-making under uncertainty. He received an MS in global health and population from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

Email: yizhilia@usc.edu

Ruixi Yu, PhD student
PhD student Ruixi’s research interests include family spillover effects and preventive care. Prior to pursuing a PhD, she completed a master’s degree in economics from Duke University.

Email: ruixiyu@usc.edu

Suning Zhao, PhD student
Suning holds an MPH from Columbia University and a Bachelor of Medicine from Fudan University, with training spanning public health and biomedical research. She brings experience in healthcare data analysis, healthcare business, biomedical laboratory research, and clinical rotations. Her interests center on health economics and outcomes research, with a focus on cancer and diabetes. 

Email: suningzh@usc.edu

Jee Choe, PhD student
Jee’s research focuses on cost-effectiveness modeling and evidence generation to inform value-based healthcare decisions. Her academic work spans published CAR-T therapy evaluations, real-world diabetes studies, and cancer patient preference modeling under the GRACE framework. She has held internships with Novartis and Genentech, where she contributed to modeling, value strategy, and evidence generation to inform payer decision-making.

Email: jhchoe@usc.edu

Jon Cloughesy, PhD student
Jon’s research applies experimental and quasi-experimental methods to examine how behavioral interventions shape healthcare decision-making among providers and patients. His current topic areas include reducing inappropriate prescribing of Z-drugs, improving equitable access to palliative care, and encouraging seriously ill patients to designate a healthcare proxy. Before joining USC, Jon spent four years as a behavioral scientist at Duke University, where he led randomized controlled trials in collaboration with CVS Health, GSK Vaccines, and the Centene Corporation.

Email: cloughes@usc.edu

Daniel Gu, PhD student
Daniel examines how digital health technologies influence medication adherence and healthcare utilization among patients with chronic and severe mental illnesses. He is also working on projects using Chinese longitudinal data to study aging, dementia detection, and early-life disadvantage. His broader interests include the intersection of health policy, an aging society, disease management for the elderly, and the use of real-world data to inform healthcare decisions.

Email: bochengg@usc.edu

Xiaofan Liu, PhD student
Xiaofan holds an MPH in biostatistics from Yale School of Public Health and a bachelor’s degree in economics statistics from Renmin University of China. Her research focuses on evaluating the impact of pharmaceutical treatments and health policies on patient health outcomes and healthcare utilization using large-scale real-world data, including claims and electronic health records. Her work primarily centers on vaccination, oncology, and cardiovascular disease areas.

Email: liuxiaof@usc.edu

Rahul Mudumba, PhD student
Rahul’s research lies at the intersection of health economics and decision science, focusing on advancing novel methods in cost-effectiveness analysis to better align with real-world patient preferences and to improve the efficiency of model development. His work spans both theoretical foundations and oncology applications, where he seeks to inform medical decision-making and health policy. He holds a master’s degree in Health Economics and Outcomes Research from Johns Hopkins University and a bachelor’s degree in Economics from Indiana University.

Email: mudumba@usc.edu

Jiafan (Isabella) Chen, PhD student
Isabella focuses on generating real-world evidence to evaluate formulary restrictions, drug value, and access policies that shape evidence-based coverage and prescribing. She is also interested in applying AI and advanced analytics to health economics and outcomes research (HEOR). Her work spans retrospective database analysis, economic modeling, and the intersection of data science and health policy. She also served as a doctoral fellow in the pharmaceutical industry and earned master’s degrees from Johns Hopkins University and a bachelor’s degree from UC Irvine.

Email: jiafanch@usc.edu

Jiahe Chen, PhD student
Jiahe holds a bachelor’s degree in pharmaceutical sciences and a master’s degree in pharmaceutical economics. His research focuses on evaluating cost-effective treatment strategies and assessing the impact of health technology advancements and health policies across various therapeutic areas, including infectious diseases, oncology, and Alzheimer’s disease.

Email: jiaheche@usc.edu

Ian Davis, PhD student
Ian focuses on the economic evaluation of health interventions, with particular interest in the theory and application of methods for analyzing the distributional and equitable impacts of interventions, as well as the use of machine learning to assess heterogeneous treatment effects. Unifying these interests is a broader goal: understanding how individuals respond to interventions and how those responses shape the overall equity and value of health policies. 

Email: ijdavis@usc.edu

Shihan Jin, PhD student
Shihan focuses on long-term care and family economics, and on real-world evidence (RWE) in neuroscience and oncology. From 2022 to 2024, he was a real-world evidence fellow in AbbVie’s HEOR group in Chicago. He also has experience in pharmaceutical investment, with an emphasis on early-stage CNS biotechnology. Shihan holds an MPH in biostatistics from Yale University and a BA in economic statistics from Renmin University of China. He is from Lanzhou, China.

Email: shihan.jin@usc.edu