Hummy Song

Hummy Song
  • Assistant Professor of Operations, Information and Decisions
  • Assistant Professor of Health Care Management

Contact Information

  • office Address:

    560 Jon M. Huntsman Hall
    3730 Walnut Street
    Philadelphia, PA 19104

Research Interests: health care operations, service operations, empirical operations management, data analytics

Links: CV, Google Scholar

Overview

Hummy Song is an Assistant Professor of Operations, Information and Decisions at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. She also holds an appointment as Assistant Professor of Health Care Management. She conducted her undergraduate, master’s, and PhD studies at Harvard University.

Professor Song’s research focuses on identifying ways to improve the performance of service systems, with a particular emphasis on the health care sector. Her work has examined several factors related to patient flow and capacity management in health care delivery settings, including queue configurations, off-service placement, performance feedback, provider turnover, and team staffing. Her research utilizes large datasets derived from electronic health record systems, administrative databases, and surveys of the health care workforce. For her research, Professor Song has worked with hospitals and health care delivery organizations in the U.S. and in developing countries.

Professor Song’s work has been published in leading academic journals including Management Science, Operations Research, and Health Services Research. Her work has also appeared in Harvard Business Review and has received media coverage in various outlets including the Wall Street Journal, Reuters, and CBS News. She is the winner of the 2022 POMS Early Career Research Accomplishments Award. She has received several recognitions for her research, including the M&SOM Service Management SIG Best Paper Award, INFORMS Health Applications Society Best Student Paper Award, and the Best OM Paper in Management Science Award (finalist). She currently serves as an Associate Editor of Management Science.

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Research

Teaching

All Courses

  • HCMG8900 - Advanced Study Project

    HCMG 8900-001: This course examines issues related to the Services Sector of the health care industry. For those interested in management, investing, or banking in the health care industry, the services sector will likely be the largest and most dynamic sector within all of health care. We will study key management issues related to a number of different health care services businesses with a focus on common challenges related to reimbursement, regulatory, margin, growth, and competitive issues. We will look at a number of different businesses and subsectors that may have been unfamiliar to students prior to taking the course. We will make extensive use of outside speakers, many of whom are true industry leaders within different sectors of the health care services industry. Speakers will address the current management issues they face in running their businesses as well as discuss the career decisions and leadership styles that enables them to reach the top of their profession. Students will be asked to develop a plan to both buy out and manage a specific health care services business of their choosing and will present their final plans to a panel of leading Health Care Private Equity investors who will evaluate their analysis. Prerequisites: HCMG 8410. Health Care Management MBA majors only

  • OIDD1010 - Introduction To Oidd

    OIDD 101 explores a variety of common quantitative modeling problems that arise frequently in business settings, and discusses how they can be formally modeled and solved with a combination of business insight and computer-based tools. The key topics covered include capacity management, service operations, inventory control, structured decision making, constrained optimization and simulation. This course teaches how to model complex business situations and how to master tools to improve business performance. The goal is to provide a set of foundational skills useful for future coursework atWharton as well as providing an overview of problems and techniques that characterize disciplines that comprise Operations and Information Management.

  • OIDD6110 - Quality and Productivity

    Matching supply with demand is an enormous challenge for firms: excess supply is too costly, inadequate supply irritates customers. In the course, we will explore how firms can better organize their operations so that they more effectively align their supply with the demand for their products and services. Throughout the course, we illustrate mathematical analysis applied to real operational challenges--we seek rigor and relevance. Our aim is to provide both tactical knowledge and high-level insights needed by general managers and management consultants. We will demonstrate that companies can use (and have used) the principles from this course to significantly enhance their competitiveness.

  • OIDD6150 - Operations Strategy

    Operations strategy is about organizing people and resources to gain a competitive advantage in the delivery of products (both goods and services) to customers. This course approaches this challenge primarily from two perspectives: 1) how should a firm design their products so that they can be profitably offered; 2) how can a firm best organize and acquire resources to deliver its portfolio of products to customers. To be able to make intelligent decisions regarding these high-level choices, this course also provides a foundation of analytical methods. These methods give students a conceptual framework for understanding the linkage between how a firm manages its supply and how well that supply matches the firm's resulting demand. Specific course topics include designing service systems, managing inventory and product variety, capacity planning, approaches to sourcing and supplier management, constructing global supply chains, managing sustainability initiatives, and revenue management. This course emphasizes both quantitative tools and qualitative frameworks. Neither is more important than the other.

Awards and Honors

  • Winner, POMS Early Career Research Accomplishments Award, 2022
  • 2nd Place, POMS College of Healthcare Operations Management Best Paper Competition, 2022
  • Finalist, Best OM Paper in Management Science Award, 2019
  • “Goes Above and Beyond the Call of Duty” MBA Core Curriculum Teaching Award, 2018
  • 1st Place, M&SOM Service Management SIG Best Paper Award, 2018
  • 1st Place, INFORMS Health Applications Society Best Student Paper Competition, 2015
  • Finalist, MSOM Student Paper Competition, 2015
  • Honorable Mention, INFORMS Behavioral Operations Management Section Best Working Paper Award, 2015
  • Finalist, POMS College of Healthcare Operations Management Best Paper Competition, 2015
  • 2nd Place, AOM Annual Meeting Health Care Management Division Best Paper Award, 2015
  • Joan P. Curhan Citizenship Award, 2015
  • 1st Place, AcademyHealth Organizational Behavior and Management Division Best Abstract Award, 2014
  • Harvard University Derek Bok Center Certificate of Distinction in Teaching, 2014
  • Harvard University Derek Bok Center Certificate of Distinction in Teaching, 2013
  • Harvard University Derek Bok Center Certificate of Distinction in Teaching, 2010
  • Thomas T. Hoopes Prize for outstanding undergraduate honors thesis, 2008

In the News

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Activity

Latest Research

H. Harriet Jeon, Claudio Lucarelli, Jean Baptiste Mazarati, Donatien Ngabo, Hummy Song (Working), Leapfrogging for Last-mile Delivery in Health Care.
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In the News

How Hospitals Can Harness the Power of Digital Transformation

Hospitals can do more to deploy technology in their operational decision-making, improving conditions for workers and outcomes for patients, says Wharton’s Hummy Song.…Read More

Knowledge at Wharton - 2/1/2022
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Wharton Magazine

Study: Shorter ER Wait Times Through Smarter Queues

What is the most efficient way to handle patients waiting to see a doctor in the ER?

Wharton Magazine - 04/25/2017

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MBA Startup ‘My Virtual Veterinarian’ Delivers Remote Pet Care

This year’s Penn Wharton Entrepreneurship Startup Challenge, a competition for up-and-coming student startups, concluded on May 2 with the finalists pitching to judges over Zoom. Felicity Johnson, WG’20, founder of pet telehealth platform My Virtual Veterinarian, was awarded the $30,000 Perlman Grand Prize.  Felicity recounts how she built the platform…

Wharton Stories - 05/26/2020
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