Victor Lei, PharmD

Victor Lei, PharmD, MSHP, is a Pharmacist and Senior Research Scientist within the Department of Medical Ethics and Health Policy at the University of Pennsylvania. As a health innovator with an expertise in clinical informatics, Dr. Lei has developed numerous predictive and natural language processing algorithms to inform clinical decision making, improve risk stratification, and understand patient behaviors. His focus is on making healthcare data more interpretable and tailored towards impactful clinical interventions and better risk management. He believes that clinical, technical, and fiduciary incentives must be aligned to solve healthcare’s most complex problems.

Dr. Lei’s research interests include predictive analytics, care delivery innovation, medication adherence, and healthcare utilization. Currently, he is leveraging electronic health record (EHR) data to predict the development of sepsis and postsurgical complications, examining health insurance claims data to understand high cost member populations, and testing behavioral economics principles to reduce opioid prescribing. His research has been published in Health Services Research, JAMA Network Open, Diabetes Medicine, Journal of Hospital Medicine, and has been presented at conferences like MEDINFO, AMIA Annual Symposium, Academy Health Annual Research Meeting, and SGIM Annual Meeting.

Dr. Lei received his Doctor of Pharmacy from Northeastern University and a Master of Science in Health Policy Research from the University of Pennsylvania. He completed his pharmacy training in hospitals, pharmacies, and clinics in Boston, MA, and established his clinical informatics expertise at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

Dr. Lei is currently affiliated with the Center of Health Incentives and Behavioral Economics, Payment Insights Team (led by Dr. Amol Navathe, MD, PhD), and was an Associate Fellow at the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics at the University of Pennsylvania. Prior to his position at the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Lei worked at Massachusetts General Hospital, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Partners Healthcare (now known as Mass General Brigham), and CVS Health.