Md Mahmudul Hasan, Ph.D., an assistant professor of pharmaceutical outcomes and policy in the University of Florida College of Pharmacy, has received one of the university’s highest honors for junior faculty. Hasan is among 10 recipients selected for the UF Excellence Award for Assistant Professors, which also includes a $5,000 stipend to support his ongoing research efforts.
“I am incredibly honored and deeply grateful to receive this award,” Hasan said. “For me, it’s not just a personal achievement, but a wonderful recognition of the hard work of my entire team, including my students, analysts and our collaborators across UF and beyond. Our research sits at the intersection of AI, pharmacy and public health, and we are focused on tackling complex problems such as the opioid crisis and mental illness.”
Hasan joined UF in 2022 and holds a joint appointment with the Department of Information Systems and Operations Management in the Warrington College of Business. He is also the assistant director of Florida’s state-funded Consortium for Medical Marijuana Clinical Outcomes Research. His research develops fair, trustworthy and equitable AI-driven and evidence-based clinical decision support systems designed to help health care professionals reduce adverse outcomes and make more informed medication decisions for patients.
In nearly four years on faculty, he has secured more than $4 million in grant funding to advance his research program. Among these awards is a $3.6 million grant from the National Institutes of Health, where Hasan serves as principal investigator. The research focuses on using AI to develop clinical decision support tools that identify patients at high risk of opioid relapse. Since joining UF, he has also authored nearly 20 publications in leading AI and health care journals, including Addiction, the American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse, the Journal of Medical Internet Research and the Journal of Biomedical Informatics.
Hasan said that AI is driving a fundamental shift in clinical decision-making from a reactive to a proactive model. In the past, a doctor often had to wait for a problem to arise to address it. Now, AI can analyze vast amounts of data from electronic health records, lab results and even doctors’ notes to identify subtle patterns that predict future problems before they become crises. This allows clinicians to intervene earlier, personalize care and improve patient outcomes.
“My research program is designed to build, refine and implement these initiatives. We develop AI-powered clinical decision support tools that fit directly into a doctor’s workflow to help them make better-informed decisions,” Hasan said.
With an interdisciplinary background spanning industrial engineering and health care AI, Hasan has leveraged his expertise to teach several courses across both the College of Pharmacy and the Warrington College of Business. He has also contributed to graduate education by chairing three Ph.D. committees and serving as a committee member on six doctoral dissertations.
Hasan’s selection for the Excellence Award for Assistant Professors marks the third consecutive year that a faculty member from the UF College of Pharmacy has earned this highly competitive honor. The college has also had recipients in seven of the past nine years.