Dr. Padula is an international thought leader in health economics and outcomes research with two decades of experience in academic, pharmaceutical and medical device sectors. He is a professor of pharmaceutical & health economics at the University of Southern California, and is a Fellow in the Schaeffer Center for Health Policy & Economics in Los Angeles, CA. His work focuses on the theoretical foundations of medical cost-effectiveness analysis and its connectivity with data science. He has more than 100 scientific publications with innovative findings pertaining to surgical outcomes, vaccines, oncology, cardiovascular, neurology and immunology. He is a recognized visionary to global organizations, having served as President of the National Pressure Injury Advisory Panel, Associate Editor for Value in Health, and Commissioner for the ANCC Magnet Recognition Program. He earned a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Northwestern University, M.S. in Health Policy from Dartmouth College, M.Sc. in Analytics from The University of Chicago, Ph.D. in Pharmacoeconomics from University of Colorado, completed his training in health economics at The University of Chicago, and was a professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health prior to joining University of Southern California and consulting for the life sciences industry.