Biography
Vishnu Prabhu is an assistant professor at the School of Modeling and Simulation Training at the University of Central Florida. His primary research interest is data-driven decision-making in healthcare, health systems modeling and deploying Internet of Things solutions in healthcare to improve patient, clinician and system outcomes. His research methods use simulation and other stochastic modeling to address various public health challenges, including emergency department crowding and healthcare-acquired infections.
He is also passionate about utilizing eXtended Reality (i.e., augmented reality and virtual reality) wearables, biosensors, digital health tools and non-pharmacological techniques to address pain, anxiety and mental health issues and has conducted multiple clinical trials. Before joining UCF, he was an assistant professor at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte. Prior to that, he was a graduate research intern at Stanford Health Care, PRISMA Health and Clemson University where he was involved in academic and applied research during his doctoral studies.
He is also passionate about utilizing eXtended Reality (i.e., augmented reality and virtual reality) wearables, biosensors, digital health tools and non-pharmacological techniques to address pain, anxiety and mental health issues and has conducted multiple clinical trials. Before joining UCF, he was an assistant professor at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte. Prior to that, he was a graduate research intern at Stanford Health Care, PRISMA Health and Clemson University where he was involved in academic and applied research during his doctoral studies.
Recent Publications
Journals and Textbooks
Stanley, L., & Prabhu, V.G. (2025). Human System Interaction – Interface Design. In Anthony. P. Ambler & John. W. Sheppard (Eds.), Realizing Complex System Design (1st Edition, pp. 441–459). CRC Press.
Marston, H. R., Prabhu, V. G., Ivan, L. (2025). Understanding Technology Use During the COVID-19 Pandemic Through the Lens of Age-Friendly Cities and Communities: An International, Multi-Centre Study. In COVID.
Ivan, L., Marston, H. R., Prabhu, V. G., Großschädl, F., Silva, P. A., Buttigieg, S. C., Çalıkoğlu,H. Ö., Bilir-Koca, B., Arslan, H., Kanozia, R., Browning, M. H., Freeman, S., & Earle, S. (2024). Successful Aging across Middle vs High-Income Countries: An Analysis of the Role of eHealth Literacy Associated with Loneliness and Wellbeing. In The Gerontologist.
Prabhu, V. G., Taaffe, K.M. (2024). Hybrid Modelling Approach Using Reinforcement Learning in Conjunction with Simulation: A Case Study of an Emergency Department. In: Fakhimi, M., Mustafee, N. (eds) Hybrid Modeling and Simulation. Simulation Foundations, Methods and Applications. Springer, Cham.
Foster, S., Hegde, S., Pirrallo, R., Prabhu, V.G., Taaffe, K., Ramsay, M., & Jackson, B. (2024). Identifying Emergency Physicians’ Strategies for Mitigating Workload Transfers during End of Shift Patient Handoffs – A Qualitative Analysis. In the Human Factors in Healthcare Journal.
Conference Proceedings, Magazine Articles and Extended Abstracts
Prasad, S., Prabhu, V. G., & Hand, W. (2024). Investigating the Impact of Pandemic on the Perioperative Healthcare Workers Availability: An Agent-Based Approach. (2024). In the proceedings of the Winter Simulation Conference.
Augustine. P., & Prabhu, V. G. Integrating Quality 4.0 in a traditional continuous improvement system (2024). In the ASQ Quality Progress magazine.
Prabhu, V. G., Pirrallo, R., Taaffe, K., Jackson, W., Ramsay, M. Forecasting Patient Arrivals and Optimizing Physician Shift Scheduling in Emergency Departments. (2023). In the proceedings of the Winter Simulation Conference.
Kalatzis, A., Prabhu, V. G., Stanley, L. & Wittie, M.P. (2023). An Effect of Augmented Reality User Interface on Task Performance, Cognitive Load, and Situational Awareness in Human-Robot Collaboration. (2023). In the Proceedings of IEEE International Conference on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN).
Foster, S., Hegde, S., Pirrallo, R., Prabhu, V.G., Taaffe, K., Ramsay, M., & Jackson, B. (2023). Evaluating Physician Stress During Patient Handoffs: Analysis of Physician Heart Rate Variability, Patient Handoff Characteristics, and ED Metrics. In the Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society.
Education
- Ph.D., Industrial Engineering, Clemson University
- M.S., Industrial Engineering, Clemson University
- B.Tech., Mechanical Production Engineering, University of Kerala
Specialties
- Health Systems Modeling
- Stochastic Modeling
- Data Analytics Applications in Healthcare
- eXtended Reality (XR) Applications
- Human Behavior Modeling
- Biosensing