All Posts By

Meghan Ross

Aug 05 2020
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cancer ribbon

CHIBE Members Win $4.9 Million Grant to Use Behavioral Economics, Implementation Science in Cancer Care

By | CHIBEblog

A $4.9 million grant has been awarded to the Perelman School of Medicine to use behavioral economics and implementation science to improve cancer care, and CHIBE is proud that two CHIBE-affiliated faculty members Rinad Beidas, PhD, and Justin Bekelman, MD, will serve as PIs alongside Robert A. Schnoll, PhD, on this program. The National Cancer Institute is funding the work through a P50 grant over five years. This team (which also includes CHIBE’s Alison Buttenheim, PhD, MBA, David Asch, MD, MBA, Frank Leone, MD, MS, Brian Jenssen, MD, MSHP, and Mitesh Patel, MD, MBA, MS) will seek out ways to…

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Jul 31 2020
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CNBC: The $600 Unemployment Boost has Ended. What’s Next?

By | In the News

Findings from paper of Atheendar Venkataramani  With negotiations between Democrats and Republicans at an impasse, millions relying on that aid are in the dark as to what comes next. … The $600 supplement reduced food insecurity by 30% and led to a 42% reduction in eating less due to financial constraints, according to a paper published Thursday by academics at Boston University and the University of Pennsylvania. Read more at CNBC.

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Jul 31 2020
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New York Times: Contact Tracing Is Failing in Many States. Here’s Why.

By | In the News

In Arizona’s most populated region, the coronavirus is so ubiquitous that contact tracers have been unable to reach a fraction of those infected. In Austin, Texas, the story is much the same. Just as it is in North Carolina, where the state’s health secretary recently told state lawmakers that its tracking program was hiring outside workers to keep up with a steady rise in cases, as a number of other states have done. Cities in Florida, another state where Covid-19 cases are surging, have largely given up on tracking cases. Things are equally dismal in California. And in New York…

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Jul 26 2020
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Freakonomics: Are Ambitious People Inherently Selfish?

By | In the News

Featuring Angela Duckworth This podcasts features the following two questions: Question #1: Is it possible to be both self-interested and altruistic at the same time?   Angela talks about her once-ongoing debate with psychologist and Wharton professor Adam Grant. You can learn more about Grant’s perspective on giving in his 2016 TED Talk. Grant was also featured in Freakonomics Radio Ep. 152 “Everybody Gossips (and That’s a Good Thing)” and Ep. 306 “How to Launch a Behavior-Change Revolution.”   Question #2: Why do we habituate to life’s greatest pleasures?   Angela and Stephen discuss Danny Kahneman’s famous study on colonoscopy-related…

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Jul 22 2020
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vaccine graphic

Alison Buttenheim, Daniel Polsky Appointed to National Committee on the Equitable Allocation of COVID-19 Vaccines

By | CHIBEblog

Two CHIBE members have been appointed to an ad hoc committee of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) and the National Academy of Medicine to provide a framework for the equitable allocation of vaccines for the novel coronavirus. CHIBE Associate Director Alison Buttenheim, PhD, MBA, and CHIBE-affiliated faculty member Daniel Polsky, PhD, MPP, are two of the 17 members of the committee. This committee will work together to develop guidance for policymakers in the domestic and global health communities when a COVID-19 vaccine has been created. Some of the questions the committee members will consider, according to…

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Jul 21 2020
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STAT: Lower the Cost of Producing Doctors, Not Just the Price of Going to Medical School

By | In the News

By David Asch et al: Medicine has become a profession accessible mainly to the rich. Just look at the price tag for medical school. In the 1960s, the four years of medical education needed to earn an M.D. in the United States could be had for about $40,000 in today’s dollars. The price is now $300,000, a 750% increase. About 70% of students take out loans to pay for medical school, graduating with an average of $200,000 in debt. One in five graduates who finance their medical education with loans accumulate more than $300,000 of debt. That average debt is increasingly concentrated in…

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Jul 19 2020
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Freakonomics: Why Are Stories Stickier Than Statistics? (NSQ Ep. 10)

By | In the News

  Angela Duckworth mentions the identifiable victim effect — the idea that a single individual’s story (an identifiable victim) is more compelling than a group of people with the same need (a statistical victim). George Loewenstein, Deborah Small and Jeff Strnad all contributed to the 2005 paper that discusses this theory.   Listen to the full podcast episode at Freakonomics.

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Jul 14 2020
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Penn Today: Philadelphia Tax on Sweetened Drinks Led to Drop in Sales

By | In the News

Philadelphia’s tax on sweetened beverages led to a 38.9% drop in the volume of taxed beverages sold at small, independent retailers and a significant increase in the price of taxed beverages, according to new research from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. This study builds on previous research that suggests beverage taxes can help reduce purchases of sugary drinks, led by Christina Roberto, an associate professor of Medical Ethics and Health Policy at Penn, and senior author on this latest paper published in Health Affairs. “Beverage taxes are a win-win: they decrease purchases of sugary drinks that are…

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Jul 10 2020
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MedPage Today: Healthcare Disruptors: Bringing $0 Copays to Self-Insured Plans

By | In the News

Developing an employer-supported insurance plan that’s affordable for both the company and its workers, and that does away with the red tape, surprise bills and other complaints that are now commonplace in U.S. healthcare, may seem like a pipe dream. Enter The Zero Card, a healthcare marketplace and supplemental employee benefit program already in operation that promises a cheaper, streamlined process for employers with self-insured plans for employees. Employers in almost every market “would stand to gain from working with The Zero Card as a complement to their self-insured plans managed by insurance companies,” commented Daniel Polsky, PhD, a health economist…

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Jul 09 2020
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The Daily Pennsylvanian: Penn Med Project Looks to See if Spending Time in Nature Can Lessen Postpartum Depression

By | In the News

A new Penn Medicine pilot program aims to find if spending time outdoor spaces can lessen or prevent postpartum depression in new mothers. Nurtured in Nature is a four-week intervention program for women ages 18 and older who had just had a baby and who lived in predominantly Black neighborhoods in Philadelphia. The project was created by Penn Medicine Assistant Professor Dr. Eugenia South, and all research was completed earlier this year before the COVID-19 pandemic hit Philadelphia in early March. “With this program, I am hoping to develop something that will connect women from Black communities to nearby nature in…

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