Author—Ethan Bochicchio
Last year, the Office of Research and Innovation (OORI) at the University of Southern California (USC) saw its first class of Student Empowerment Award recipients. The OORI’s Student Empowerment Award seeks to support undergraduate and graduate students, as well as their faculty mentors, in engaging in groundbreaking research and early-stage entrepreneurship that results in intellectual property for economic and social good. One year later, awardees have made commendable progress, and the Award is succeeding in its effort to produce groundbreaking use-inspired research.
The 2024 application round resulted in nine Student Empowerment Awards being granted. The recipients were mentored by faculty from the Iovine and Young Academy, the Viterbi School of Engineering, the Marshall School of Business, the Sol Price School of Public Policy, and the Keck School of Medicine. USC faculty members have praised the program, noting its promising success. Dr. Erin Duffy of the Schaeffer Center for Health Policy & Economics was a participating faculty member in the Student Empowerment Award this past year. She is a health policy researcher and author of over 50 peer-reviewed publications, with her work appearing in major media outlets such as the New York Times and NPR. Her research focuses on healthcare cost drivers, market failures, and patients’ financial burdens, particularly how uninsured and underinsured individuals navigate care and billing. She has studied surprise medical bills, the effects of related federal and state policies, and disparities in health outcomes. Also participating was Dr. Erin Trish, who serves as co-director of the Schaeffer Center and is an associate professor of pharmaceutical and health economics.
Dr. Duffy, who, with Dr. Trish, was paired with a team of student research assistants as part of the Student Empowerment Award, stated that her team “included several fantastic students from programs across our campus. The students were central to the research and are our coauthors on the publications.” Their research team used the Award’s funding to complete several studies exploring how patients manage the financial side of health care in the United States. For example, Dr. Duffy and Dr. Trish conducted the study “Insights from Crowdfunding Campaigns for Medical Hardships,” which examined how people use crowdfunding to cover medical expenses. The study was published in Health Affairs Scholar and listed among its coauthors Dr. Duffy and Dr. Trish’s student research assistants, Nina Linh Nguyen, Nicholas Wong, Samudha Raghu, Ella Cho, and Samantha Randall.
The team is an impressive cohort. Nina Linh Nguyen, a graduate student pursuing a Master of Health Administration, was a researcher at the Schaeffer Center and is now an associate with KPMG Healthcare. Nicholas Wong is a USC graduate with a BA in economics and a BS in neuroscience. He was a research assistant at the Schaeffer Center and is now an analyst at Charles River Associates. Samudha Raghu has earned a Master of Science in Computer Science and is an AI Software Development Engineer at Ekaya AI. Samantha Randall was a Project Specialist at the Schaeffer Center for the past five years. Currently, she is working on her PhD in Public Policy and Management, with research focusing on factors influencing individuals’ civic and political behavior, how public opinion translates into proposed and enacted policy, and the impact of local-level engagement on government outcomes. Ella Cho is pursuing an undergraduate degree at USC while working as a research assistant at the Schaeffer Center.
“Insights from Crowdfunding Campaigns for Medical Hardships” was one of several studies in which students were listed as coauthors. The published paper “Secret Shopper Study: Underinsured Elective Surgery Patients” was also produced with the help of the students who were listed as coauthors in Health Affairs Scholar, examining what happens when underinsured patients try to schedule elective surgeries. Another study, entitled “Prevalence and Characteristics of Medical Payment Products at U.S. Hospitals,” was published in JAMA Health Forum, and two additional papers funded by the Student Empowerment Award are forthcoming in The American Journal of Managed Care (AJMC). Another study from the team is currently under review.
The Student Empowerment Award is a stark manifestation of USC’s commitment to research-driven innovation and experiential learning. Connecting students and faculty across disciplines, the program strengthens USC’s capacity to turn ideas into solutions. This initiative is not only cultivating the next generation of research leaders but also advancing research. It further bolsters OORI’s mission to advance knowledge, foster collaboration, and create meaningful societal impact through research and innovation. More information about further opportunities can be found on the USC Innovation Ecosystem Website (https://innovation.usc.edu). Additionally, specific information about USC’s Innovation Catalyst Program and USC’s Research Catalyst Program can be found here (https://rii.usc.edu/funding/).