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Summary

Brad Price is an associate professor of business data analytics in the Management Information Systems Department at the John Chambers College of Business and Economics, West Virginia University (WVU). Price develops new statistical and machine learning methods, algorithms, theory, and software with applications focused on healthcare and operations. Currently, his research centers on multitask machine-learning problems, through which he can simultaneously predict multiple outcomes while identifying important drivers and providing insights into relationships between outcomes. Price works with and tests his solutions in the public and private sectors to ensure his research has direct application in these environments.

Description of Research Impact

Price’s research takes place at the intersection of machine learning, statistical methods, and theoretical applications. It is motivated by practical problems, which have varied from deploying machine learning models to predicting customer preferences in event venues to handwriting recognition to better estimating inventory levels in large manufacturing settings.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Price led and worked on teams that activated both the land-grant and R1 missions of WVU to develop new machine learning, analytical tools, and technologies in response to the pandemic in West Virginia and rural areas across the United States. As part of these efforts, the research team developed novel methods for forecasting hospitalizations in order to determine the demand for personal protective equipment supplies. For this accomplishment, Price and the team were awarded civilian service medals from the West Virginia National Guard. The team’s methods were based on industry-motivated and industry-tested algorithms and technology that Price and his co-authors had previously designed to set inventory parameters for manufacturing facilities in West Virginia.

Price also developed and implemented software, maintained inventory, and distributed COVID-19 vaccinations in West Virginia until standard mechanisms of ordering and distributing could be used. He currently serves as the co-director of biostatistics, epidemiology, and research design of West Virginia Clinical and Translational Science Institute, an NIH-funded institute focused on impacting health outcomes in West Virginia. Price has also served as chief data scientist for the West Virginia Governor’s Joint Interagency Task Force, which was responsible for the state’s COVID-19 response.

Price’s research is currently focused on developing and using machine learning frameworks for healthcare operations in rural areas, with applications that include identifying priority areas for resources during healthcare crises and predicting the co-occurrence of drug usage in the opioid epidemic. Other focuses of Price’s research include helping rural healthcare providers and health systems implement modern analytical and machine learning technologies to assist physicians and increase patient outcomes where health disparities are the highest. Many external entities, such as the National Institute of Health and the National Science Foundation, have supported this work.

Price is also heavily involved with many external partners through the Data Driven WV program of Chambers College. These partners have included both state entities and private organizations, such as financial institutions and government contractors that are interested in implementing machine learning technologies into their organizations.

Supporting Links

• , West Virginia University
• , NIH RePORTER