The Healthy Nudge

April 2022

Welcome to The Healthy Nudge. Each month, we'll get you up to speed on the latest developments in policy-relevant health behavioral economics research at CHIBE.

1) Why employee wellness programs don’t work  A Knowledge@Wharton piece featuring CHIBE affiliated-faculty member Iwan Barankay, PhD Company wellness programs are well intended, but they don’t result in cost savings because they aren’t tailored to help the most vulnerable employees, Iwan Barankay, PhD, explains. Read more or listen here.

2) Accelerate Health Equity initiative seeks to dismantle racism, advance health A CHIBE blog post featuring CHIBE-affiliated faculty member Raina Merchant, MD, MSHP, FAHA; CHIBE Director Kevin Volpp, MD, PhD; and Project Director and CHIBE member Erica Dixon, PhD Members of CHIBE are co-leading an initiative with a bold ambition: to identify structural and institutional causes of health inequities and racism, transform those practices, and significantly improve health equity in the City of Philadelphia. This initiative, called Accelerate Health Equity, is led by Penn Medicine and Independence Blue Cross and brings together many other organizations including Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Temple, Drexel, Jefferson/Einstein, Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, Keystone First, Trinity, and the Philadelphia Department of Public Health, who are committed to combating health inequity in the city.

3) CHIBE and Humana discuss changing care models in the 21st century A CHIBE blog post featuring CHIBE Associate Director Amol Navathe, MD, PhD CHIBE hosted a webinar with panelists from the University of Pennsylvania and Humana to discuss how health care is evolving and how we might optimize the value of care received to improve patient outcomes, address health equity concerns, and make care more affordable. Watch the recording here or see excerpts from the panel event here.

4) Best behavioral economics books for beginners A blog post featuring recommendations by CHIBE leadership members Kevin Volpp, MD, PhD; M. Kit Delgado, MD, MS; Rinad Beidas, PhD; Christina Roberto, PhD; and Alison Buttenheim, PhD, MBA Interested in learning more about behavioral economics? Members of the CHIBE leadership team share their recommendations for some of their favorite behavioral economics books for beginners. Find book suggestions on topics like behavior change, the science of scaling, the birth of behavioral economics as a field, the science of motivation, and more.

5) America created its own booster problems An article in The Atlantic, featuring CHIBE-affiliated faculty members Gretchen Chapman, PhD, and Jessica Fishman, PhD Months of confusing messaging, piled onto existing inequities, kneecapped America’s booster campaign before it had really started. Read The Atlantic article here, featuring two of our affiliated faculty members weighing in on messaging around booster shots.

Top Tweet Job Opportunities The University of Pennsylvania's Perelman School of Medicine has several research staff positions open:  Research Project Manager A/B, Division of Health Policy Clinical Research Coordinator A/B, Division of Health Policy Clinical Research Coordinator, B/C, Nudge Unit Clinical Research Coordinator A/B, PEACH Lab The Center for Health Incentives and Behavioral Economics (CHIBE) at the University of Pennsylvania conducts behavioral economics research aimed at reducing the disease burden from major public health problems. Originally founded within the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics, our mission is to inform health policy, improve health care delivery, and increase healthy behavior. Follow CHIBE on Twitter

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