Our Faculty

Ryan Suk

Assistant Professor
PhD, MS
SOCIAL LINKS

Bio

Dr. Ryan Suk (Rye-un Sook) is a tenure-track Assistant Professor at the Center for Data Science, Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing, with a secondary appointment at the Department of Health Policy and Management at Rollins School of Public Health. Dr. Suk also serves as a Faculty Consultant for Health Economics & Outcomes Research (HEOR) at the Winship Center for Cancer Health Equity Research of Winship Cancer Institute. She is a Health Economist and Decision Scientist by training and currently serves on the Board of the Society for Medical Decision Making (SMDM), a key academic community for decision scientists.

Dr. Suk's research integrates health economics, decision science, and operations research to understand and improve how individuals and health systems navigate trade-offs, with the goal of optimizing resource allocation, reducing opportunity costs, and improving decisions under constraints. She focuses on improving prevention and care in HPV-associated cancers and other screening-detectable cancers, where individuals face informational and access barriers and health systems must allocate limited resources efficiently. Her research has been published in JAMA Health Forum, JAMA Network Open, JAMA Pediatrics, JNCI, LGBT Health, Journal of General Internal Medicine, and more.

She is also passionate about mentoring and teaching, with a special focus on bridging AI and data analytics with decision science to support systems thinking, assess economic value, and improve decision-making through what she calls Translational Decision Intelligence.  

Dr. Suk received a Bachelor's degree in Business Administration (BBA) from Korea University (Seoul, Korea), an MS in Economics from the University of Utah (Salt Lake City, Utah), and after completing her PhD coursework at the University of Florida (Gainesville, Florida), a PhD in Health Economics from The University of Texas Health Science Center (UTHealth) School of Public Health (Houston, Texas). Before joining Emory, they served as an Assistant Professor at the University of Florida College of Pharmacy and at UTHealth School of Public Health.

Outside the academic sphere, they enjoy backyard birding & squirreling, as well as weight training. Dr. Suk is a Seoul (Korea) native.

Areas of Interest

  • Cancer
  • Data Science
  • Health Disparities
  • Health Policy
  • Health Services Research
  • Methods
  • Women's Health

Teaching

Dr. Suk focuses on bridging AI and data analytics with decision science to support systems thinking, assess economic value, and improve decision-making through what she calls Translational Decision Intelligence. In the upcoming MS Program in Health Care Data Analytics (starting Spring 2027, online), she will guide students in applying advanced AI and data analytics to real-world healthcare challenges while integrating decision science to evaluate, adopt, and implement AI technologies across complex health systems, where patients, clinicians, healthcare organizations, payers, policymakers, and other stakeholders make interconnected decisions that shape health and economic outcomes.

Course: HCDA612 Health Care Analytics and Health Systems (MS Program, Spring 2027~)

Research

Dr. Suk's ongoing supported projects include 1) identifying spatial and informational accessibility, and opportunity costs, for affordable HPV vaccination using advanced spatial modeling and cognitive task analysis; 2) developing a web tool for navigating healthcare and social resources (HPVx Navigator); 3) integrating causal machine learning and microsimulation to estimate heterogeneous treatment effects and conduct a distributional cost-effectiveness analysis of advanced palliative radiotherapy; and 4) developing a discrete-event process modeling notation (DPMN) framework to model FQHC workflows for adopting at-home HPV self-collection, and evaluate operational feasibility and budget impact under different scenarios.

Publications

  1. Suk R, Lin YY, Dilley S, Chandler R, Xiao R, Shao H, Wells J. Survival by Treatment Recommendation and Receipt Among Older Patients With Early-Stage Cervical Cancer. JAMA Netw Open. 2025;8(9):e2532206. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.32206
  2. Suk R, Xie Z, Spencer JC, Lemieux-Cumberlege A, Hong YR. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and other sexual minority adults in the US and their unmet medical needs and telehealth use due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Annals of LGBTQ Public and Population Health. 2024. doi:10.1891/LGBTQ-2022-0029
  3. Vu M, Zhu Y, Trinh DD, Hong YR, Suk R. Awareness and knowledge of HPV and HPV vaccine among Asian American adults by origin group: A 2014-2019 population-based analysis. Journal of General Internal Medicine. 2023. doi: 10.1007/s11606-023-08485-w
  4. Hong YR, Xie Z, Lee J, Turner K, Suk R. Cancer Survivors’ Unmet Healthcare Needs and Emergency Department Utilization during the COVID-19 Pandemic. AJPM Focus. 2023. doi:10.1016/j.focus.2023.100065
  5. Suk R, Liao K, Bauer C, Basil C, Li M. Human Papillomavirus Vaccine Administration Trends among Commercially Insured Adults Aged 27-45 Before and After Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices Recommendation Change in the US, 2007-2020. JAMA Health Forum. 2022. doi:10.1001/jamahealthforum.2022.4716
  6. Bauer C, Zhang K, Xiao Q, Lu J, Hong YR, Suk R. County-level social vulnerability and breast, cervical, and colorectal cancer screening rates in the US, 2018. JAMA Network Open. 2022. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.33429
  7. Suk R, Hong YR, Rajan SS, Xie Z, Zhu Y, Spencer JC. Assessment of US Preventive Services Taskforce-concordant cervical cancer screening rates and reasons for underscreening by age, race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, rurality, and insurance, 2005 to 2019. JAMA Network Open. 2022. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.29913
  8. Suk R, Hong YR, Wasserman RM, Swint JM, Azenui NB, Sonawane K, Tsai AC*, Deshmukh AA*. [* Authors with equal contribution] Analysis of Suicide after Cancer Diagnosis by US County-Level Income and Rural vs Urban Designation, 2000-2016. JAMA Network Open. 2021. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.29913
  9. Deshmukh AA*, Suk R*, Shiels MS, Sonawane K, Nyitray AG, Liu Y, Gaisa MM, Palefsky JM, Sigel K. [* Authors with equal contribution] Recent Trends in Squamous Cell Carcinoma of the Anus Incidence and Mortality in the United States, 2001-2015. JNCI. 2020. doi:10.1093/jnci/djz219
  10. Suk R, Montealegre JR, Nemutlu GS, Nyitray AG, Schmeler KM, Sonawane K*, Deshmukh AA*. Public Knowledge of Human Papillomavirus (HPV) and Receipt of Vaccination Recommendations. JAMA Pediatrics. 2019. doi:10.1001/jamapediatrics.2019.3105
  11. Suk R, Mahale P, Sonawane K, Sikora A, Chhatwal J, Schmeler K, Sigel K, Cantor SB, Chiao EY*, Deshmukh AA*. Trends in Risks for Second Primary Cancers Associated with Index Human Papillomavirus Associated Cancers. JAMA Network Open. 2018. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2018.1999

Complete List of Published Work: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/myncbi/ryan.suk.1/bibliography/public/

Awards & Affiliations

  • Selected trainee for the Comparative Effectiveness Training (CERTaIN, NCI R25CA257883, UT MD Anderson Cancer Center) Pragmatic Clinical Trials, Apr 27-Apr 30, 2026
  • 2025 Emerging Leaders Fellow, National HPV Vaccination Roundtable, American Cancer Society
  • Top reviewer for 2023, JAMA Network Open
  • Selected trainee for the 3rd Annual SGM Cancer CARE Workshop (NIH1R25CA240113, SGM Cancer CARE, UT MD Anderson Cancer Center) Feb 29-Mar 2, 2024
  • Selected trainee for NIH All of Us data and LGBTQ+ research training, PRIDEnet Research Basecamp (PRIDEnet, NIH All of Us, Stanford University) Mar 23-24, 2023  
  • SPHSA Research Day 2020, 3rd Place Award, The University of Texas HSC, 2020
    (Title: Risks of Suicidal Deaths after a Cancer Diagnosis by County-level Socioeconomic and Metropolitan Status in the US, 1992-2016)
  • People with AIDS Public Health in the Americas Scholarship, The University of Texas HSC, 2019
  • Department of Management, Policy and Community Health Scholarship, The University of Texas HSC, 2019
  • School of Public Health Travel Fund, The University of Texas HSC, 2019
  • Grinter Fellowship, University of Florida, 2016-2019
  • Graduate Student Council Travel Grant, University of Florida, Spring 2018
  • Thesis Grant, Department of Economics, University of Utah, 2015-2016