From Our Executive Director

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Looking back on our 55th year, the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics remained strong and more relevant than ever. As Penn’s hub for research on population health, the health care system, and health policy, LDI continues to support, connect, engage, and amplify the research of over 400 Senior Fellows from across Penn’s campus. We have invested in the talents and visibility of our faculty to increase their reach and impact, built new research partnerships and learning laboratories that will enable faculty to do high-impact and timely work to address critical challenges in health policy, and led important evidence-informed conversations to advance health policy.

In this Year in Review, I hope that you will enjoy revisiting work that was impactful to you and discovering new things that you may have missed. I am proud of everything that we achieved in 2022 and I look forward building on this year’s work to further advance our priorities in 2023.

Rachel M. Werner

Rachel M. Werner, MD, PhD

Executive Director, Penn LDI; Robert D. Eilers Professor of Health Care Management and Economics, Wharton School; Professor, Medicine, Perelman School of Medicine


2022 By the Numbers

400+Senior Fellows

200+Associate Fellows

7,500+Journal Articles Published

2,600+Virtual Seminar Attendees

180+Research Updates

$883KAwarded in Pilot Funds

Research

Penn LDI published over 180 research updates in 2022, covering the work of a large number of LDI Fellows and a wide array of health care topics, including the opioid crisis, improving care for older adults, health equity, and more. Check out some of the top updates of the year below.

Brief | Opioid Epidemic

Lowering the Barriers to Medication Treatment for People with Opioid Use Disorder

With overdose deaths reaching unprecedented levels in the U.S., LDI Fellows discussed barriers to treatment, the low-threshold approach, the evidence of its effectiveness, and areas for future research.

By Shoshana Aronowitz, Margaret Lowenstein, Janet Weiner, and colleagues

News | Improving Care for Older Adults

NASEM Report Calls for Sweeping Reorganization of Nursing Home Industry

Two LDI Senior Fellows weighed in on decades of shortcomings in the nursing home industry, which led to the catastrophic levels of mortality experienced in nursing homes during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Rachel M. Werner and Mary Ersek helped author the 600+ page National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine consensus study.

Jalpa Doshi

Blog | Health Care Access & Coverage

How a Federal Policy for Pharmacoequity Keeps Falling Short

The 340B program requires pharmaceutical companies to provide steep drug discounts to eligible safety net hospitals and clinics.

Jalpa Doshi and colleagues examined the effects of this program on availability of pharmacies, finding that while the total number of 340B pharmacies increased, pharmacies in disadvantaged neighborhoods decreased. 

Events

Penn LDI hosted a full schedule of events in 2022. Our virtual policy seminars reached a wide, interdisciplinary, national audience of thousands, and were supplemented by in-person seminars, workshops, and events. In total we hosted over 25 events in 2022 on campus, online, and in Washington, D.C. See recaps of selected events below.

Fellow Accomplishments and Awards

Penn LDI brings together the greatest minds from across the University of Pennsylvania to address the most pressing health and health care challenges facing our nation today. Their work garners national attention and the highest honors in the field. This year, LDI Fellows received major awards and honors recognizing their work. A sampling of these is listed below.

Fellows in the Media

During 2022, LDI Fellows authored op-eds and commentaries, lending their voices and authority to the nation’s current health care policy debates. LDI Fellows also shared their expertise in major media outlets, including the Washington Post, The Atlantic, and the New York Times. Selected op-eds are highlighted below.

Penn LDI Training Programs

Penn LDI continued its work to help support and train the next generation of researchers in 2022, through its array of training programs, ranging from undergraduate to postdoctoral programs. Highlights from a few of this year’s programs are below.

Featured Partnership: Penn LDI Research Initiative on Improving Management of Chronic Kidney Disease

Penn LDI launched a new initiative to support research to transform health care delivery for patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). The Penn LDI Research Initiative on Improving Management of Chronic Kidney Disease will fund rapid-turnaround high-impact research projects that will have a meaningful and measurable impact on improving the delivery of care for individuals with CKD, with a particular focus on projects that addresses disparities in care, including structural barriers and racial inequities. We anticipate funding up to five research projects of up to $350,000 each over three years (through two Requests for Proposals). This program is made possible by a generous gift from Monogram Health.

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