Tell us about yourself!

I live in Indianapolis and have a wonderful wife and teenage daughter. We have two dogs who travel everywhere with us. My wife is from Puerto Rico and we have a large family there, so we visit as often as we can to enjoy the island life.

What do you teach MSHM students?
I teach Quantitative Analysis in the MSHM program. More than anything, students need the ability to make sound decision-making and problem-solving using data, statistics, and modeling. I strive to pass on the discipline of sound model building to solve complicated issues they will face in healthcare.

Do you have a research area of interest?
Healthcare analytics is my research area. I’m passionate about empowering patients, increasing their range of knowledge about the metrics used to measure their health, and how they can have a more active role in deciding what treatments or preventative measures to take, to optimize their personal health. I’m a Fellow in the Business of Life Sciences at Kelley, and we have a few projects in the preliminary stages. Some deal with assisting hospitals with managing limited resources, and improving patient flow.

What do you love about your job?
I love helping students realize they can build advanced mathematical models, by breaking down each model into small, manageable pieces. The end result is a highly sophisticated model to facilitate decision-making, but the joy is in simplifying each component and showing how they all fit together.

What advice do you have for current or prospective students?
[My advice] start by carefully observing the way things are done in your area, then slowly introduce concepts and prototypes for ways to help create efficiencies in the processes around you. Healthcare has a plethora of opportunities for improvements, and even small changes you can implement can have a very meaningful impact on patients and the staff who provide care to those patients.”

Connect with Professor Perry on LinkedIn!