Shinyi Wu, PhD

Shinyi Wu is an associate professor with a secondary appointment at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering. She is also a senior scientist at the USC Edward R. Roybal Institute on Aging. Wu brings an engineering approach to research that spans many social work applications, from health, behavioral health, mental health, aging, organization and management, to policy analysis and transformation. With her cross-disciplinary perspective, she identifies, develops and analyzes real-world approaches and technology applications; these approaches have the potential to amplify humanity in health care delivery systems and to improve quality, efficiency and equity of services for disadvantaged populations with chronic illnesses.

With a joint appointment in the Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Viterbi, Wu was the principal investigator of the Diabetes-Depression Care-Management Adoption Trial (DCAT), evaluating an automated technology system that implemented evidence-based depression care management to improve outcomes and reduce disparities among low-income diabetes patients. Shaped by three research projects in which she also played a leadership role: a systematic review of the impact of health information technology on quality, efficiency and costs of medical care; an analysis of implementation costs and lessons learned for a national evaluation of innovative language access services for Spanish-speaking patients with limited English proficiency; and an evaluation that used a systems approach to assess the effects of lean management principles implementation in four public hospitals to improve congestive heart failure care.

Wu’s current research focuses on testing interventions to reduce health care disparities. She is contributing to the design of a mobile health technology application for team-based care management in community settings and will evaluate the technology’s effectiveness in stroke care management and coordination from the perspective of multiple stakeholders. In addition, she has a key leadership role in a Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) study to test a promotora (community health care worker) intervention for patients with multiple chronic illnesses and depression.