Rise of the Machines in Health Care?
Twelve Penn Researchers Receive 2019 LDI Pilot Grants
LDI Implementation Science Working Group Expands Into Major Initiative
Mountain Top Behavioral Economics: 2018 Roybal Retreat Photo Page
Photo Page: Poster Session at 2018 Roybal Behavioral Economics Retreat
Report From The First National 'Nudge Units in Health Care' Symposium
Penn Team Opioid 'Sprained Ankle' Study Generates National Media Impact
Charles Bosk Wins Guggenheim Fellowship for a Book About Medical Errors
Measuring Emergency Care Survival: The Implications of Risk-Adjusting for Race and Poverty
Kimon L.H. Ioannides, Avi Baehr, David N. Karp, Douglas J. Wiebe, Brendan G. Carr,...
ABSTRACT [FROM JOURNAL]
Objectives: We determined the impact of including race, ethnicity, and poverty in risk adjustment models for emergency care sensitive conditions mortality that could be used for hospital pay‐for‐performance initiatives. We hypothesized that adjusting for race, ethnicity, and poverty would bolster rankings for hospitals that cared for a disproportionate share of non‐white, Hispanic, or poor patients.
Methods: We performed a cross‐sectional analysis
...New Medical Errors Documentary Wows Penn Professors and Administrators
Penn Evidence-Based Decision Support Expert Named to Chair PCORI Panel
Head and Neck Cancer in the Elderly: Frailty, Shared Decisions, and Avoidance of Low Value Care

Leila J. Mady, Marci L. Nilsen, Jonas T. Johnson
Abstract [from journal]
Head and neck cancer (HNC) is a disease of older adults. Recurrent and metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma portends a poor prognosis, with median overall survival of less than 12 months. Within this vulnerable population, significant treatment-related toxicities and physical and psychosocial sequelae can be devastating to quality of life at the end of life. Shared decision making and early comprehensive palliative and support services are at the crux of the approach to older adults with HNC. In doing so, low-value care
...NEJM Spotlights Penn's History-Making 'Nudge' Unit
When Physicians Support Financial Penalties to Reduce Low-Value Care (and When They Don’t)
Despite professional consensus, guidelines, and national campaigns, physicians continue to provide many low-value services. These services are defined as having little to no benefit, little benefit relative to their cost, or outsized potential harm compared to their benefit. Policies have tried to promote high-value care by altering physician compensation, but have had limited success in part because they are rarely based on theories of physician behavior.