Why fixing systems matters more than fixing people: Insights from Dr. George Loewenstein
January 23, 2026
CHIBE Annual Report 2025–2026
Letter from CHIBE Director Kevin Volpp
Thank you to our faculty, staff, advisory boards, and partners who helped us conduct behavioral economics research this year that improves health in the United States and abroad. Here’s a glimpse into some of the conversations, partnerships, and new directions shaping CHIBE’s work. We have had a great year in many respects and share some highlights with you below.
Something you may not have heard about CHIBE: CHIBE has a new home on the Penn campus! We moved from our offices in Blockley Hall to the 8th floor of 3600 Civic Center Boulevard in Philadelphia. This move keeps us together with the other Centers and Departments focused on population health science research, who moved in parallel, for maximal synergies going forward.
One thing CHIBE will be thinking about in the coming year: This fall, CHIBE put together an AI taskforce with subgroups working on data analytics, discovery and evaluation, development and communications, and program management. We are also working on several AI-related projects. Stay tuned to hear about our progress in the coming year.
What’s new with the American Heart Association’s Food Is Medicine (FIM) initiative: The initiative, for which CHIBE provides academic program support, is continuing to flourish. One of our grantees, CHIBE faculty affiliate and Penn cardiologist Lauren Eberly, who splits her time between Penn and the Navajo reservation in New Mexico/Arizona, published randomized trial results in JAMA Internal Medicine showing that a medically tailored meal program for patients with heart failure on the Navajo reservation reduced hospitalization rates by 52% (see story here). This along with the results of 23 other trials that are in the process of being published, work with 14 state Medicaid programs, and collaborations with a number of national insurers makes me optimistic about the increasing momentum FIM programs are having in terms of convincing public and private insurers to cover programs in clinical contexts where there is evidence of substantial benefit.
What are we particularly grateful for? We are grateful for philanthropic support that has created two endowed Chairs. Janet and John Haas have generously created a new endowed Chair in Population Health. This will be called the Founders Professorship in Population Health initially and will eventually be renamed after David Asch, who has been an important mentor to so many of us and who helped us start CHIBE many years ago (see story here). Ralph and Beth Johnston Muller have endowed the Directorship of CHIBE. This provides us with highly valuable funds for innovation and considerably strengthens us as an organization. Ralph is the former CEO of Penn Medicine and a longtime member of the CHIBE Advisory Board; he was also an important mentor and supporter to CHIBE efforts throughout his tenure as CEO (see story here).
One thing I’m looking forward to in the next year: Every year there are exciting new beginnings, and this year is no exception. We have new projects starting involving continuous glucose monitoring and agentic AI, a new $25M PCORI project that will create definitive evidence on the relationship between physical activity and cardiovascular disease risk, a new NIH-funded study that will link adult and pediatric records to enable family-based interventions to address adult and child obesity, and a new human-centered design core which we believe will help ground our behavioral interventions in the contexts in which they will be deployed for greater effectiveness.
We extend our thanks to Hoag Levins (Editor of Digital Publications, LDI) and Eric Sucar for their photos contained in this report.
Kevin Volpp, MD, PhD
Director, CHIBE
Mark V. Pauly President’s Distinguished Professor
Perelman School of Medicine and the Wharton School
University of Pennsylvania
Our Vision: A healthier world powered by behavioral economics
Our Four Focus Areas
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Healthy Behaviors
Our investigators conduct research to understand the behavioral factors that influence food choice, medication adherence, physical activity, and smoking cessation, among other behaviors.
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Health Care Delivery
CHIBE explores innovative behavioral economic solutions to improve health outcomes while reducing costs through the transformation of health care delivery. -
Digital Health & Wearables
Our team applies principles of behavioral economics to connected health through interventions that leverage CHIBE’s Way to Health software platform, as well as wearable fitness trackers and apps. -
Health Policy & Financing
Our researchers examine the impact of policy initiatives and shifts in health incentives on patient, clinician, and health system outcomes through a mixture of observational studies and experimental work. -
Healthy Behaviors
Our investigators conduct research to understand the behavioral factors that influence food choice, medication adherence, physical activity, and smoking cessation, among other behaviors.
The Year in Review
At A Glance
Our faculty include affiliates primarily from the University of Pennsylvania but also from universities across the country who work in a number of fields, including medicine, business, economics, psychology, law, nursing, communication, and computer science.
By the Numbers
814
CHIBE-authored publications in 2025
8,147
Media mentions of our faculty
278
H-index for CHIBE-authored articles
Top Social Media Posts
“With thanks to the Haas Family, CHIBE is establishing its first endowed chair — the Founders Professorship of Population Health — and Dr. Harsha Thirumurthy has been selected to be the inaugural Chair recipient.”
“Our researchers have been awarded $25 million to conduct a trial using behavioral economics tools and smartphone fitness trackers to fight heart disease.”
Research Highlights
Learn about some of our important discoveries this year.
Research & Publications
News & Media
What behavioral science project did you work on this year?
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We designed and evaluated a behavioral intervention that uses a pre-visit questionnaire to make tobacco cessation support and nicotine replacement therapy easier for primary care patients to access.
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We are conducting a study using electronic health record data to assess how a choice architecture intervention (an order set with default dose titration steps) influenced dose titration and weight loss among patients prescribed GLP-1s.
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We are conducting a randomized controlled trial to evaluate the impact of a comprehensive Food Is Medicine program, including a food pharmacy, individualized nutrition counseling, and diet-related group activities, on clinical, behavioral, and quality-of-life outcomes among older adults with cardiovascular conditions in rural central Virginia.
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We conducted a study to assess the potential of dynamically applying interventions (either financial rewards or study team outreach) to keep participants engaged with a physical activity program.
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We used an opt-out default — automatically connecting parents to nicotine replacement therapy, quitline, and text-message counseling through the electronic health record — to scale tobacco treatment across a pediatric primary care network, finding it significantly increased mothers’ smoking cessation at the population level.
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We conducted a study alongside the Penn Medicine Healthy Heart (PMHH) trial to understand factors related to implementation of not just the PMHH intervention itself, but also the defaults and opt-out processes used in the administration of the trial.
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We completed a study testing the effects of community group formation and remote health care access on the use of health services and mental health outcomes.
The Year in Impact
Impact Stories
CHIBE’s research has real-world impact, improving health here in the United States and abroad. This year, our faculty increased access to medications in Sierra Leone, reduced hospitalizations, and nudged clinicians to prescribe alcohol use disorder medications more often.
AI tool helps get needed medicine throughout Sierra Leone
A research team built an AI tool that helped improve patient access to medicine in Sierra Leone. This tool, a decision-aware machine learning framework for the allocation of essential medicines, helped increase the consumption of needed medicine by 19%.
Navajo meal program reduces hospitalization rate by 52%
Researchers found that a culturally and medically tailored meal program improved outcomes for people in rural Navajo Nation with heart failure.
Nudge strategy leads to 15-fold increase in naltrexone prescriptions
A multicomponent intervention involving nudges to clinicians in the emergency department led to a significant increase in alcohol use disorder medication prescriptions.
Events
CHIBE hosted several research seminars with the leading international scholars in behavioral economics, health, and policy. We heard from Drs. Judd Kessler, Amy Finkelstein, Christina Gravert, George Loewenstein, Emily Oster, Stephan Lewandowsky, Elke Weber, and Joseph Doyle.
Each year, we also host a team retreat that attracts more than 115 participants and an invitational behavioral science and health symposium to share the latest research and create new connections. Our keynote speakers were NIH Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya and Professor John List, Chief Economist of Walmart and the Director of the Becker Friedman Institute for Economics and the Kenneth C. Griffin Distinguished Service Professor in Economics at the University of Chicago.
CHIBE affiliates share their personal achievements
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Alison Buttenheim brought her LEGO Serious Play facilitation skills to her 35th reunion at Yale in May.
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Harsha Thirumurthy ran the Tunnel Hill 50-mile race in Illinois. He finished in 5:38:27 (6:55/mile), setting a new American men’s record in his age group (45-49), and breaking the previous record which had stood for a quarter century.
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Laurie Norton is getting back into singing after a long hiatus and performed a song at a ‘Salon’ in Santa Fe this past spring.
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Sam Fellman was featured on a Breast Cancer Awareness Panel sponsored by the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at the Free Library of Philadelphia, where she joined leading experts in a community advocate role to discuss the latest advances in breast cancer research, treatment, and patient support.
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Leslie John published a book called “Revealing: The Underrated Power of Oversharing,” which explores why we hesitate to open up, when sharing backfires, and how to strike a balance between too much and too little.
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Cait Lamberton started a new role as Vice Dean of the Wharton Undergraduate program, took ballroom dance classes, and was elected president of the Society for Consumer Psychology.
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Judd Kessler published a book called “Lucky by Design: The Hidden Economics You Need to Get More of What You Want.”
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With the help of colleagues on campus and elsewhere, Jessica Fishman reported reaching a personal record for donations that help girls attend school when they can’t afford period products. Learn more about Girls on the GO (with Flo) at girlsonthegowithflo.org.
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Damon Centola has a new book coming out with MIT Press this fall called “Goodthink: The New Science of Collective Intelligence.”
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Joelle Friedman served on the Ardmore Library Board, where she contributed to community programming, fundraising, and efforts to expand access to resources. “At a time when trusted information and inclusive community spaces are more critical than ever, it has been especially meaningful to support the library’s role in fostering learning, connection, and access for all.”
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Rinad Beidas is now the Co-editor in Chief for Implementation Science.
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Jingsan Zhu’s son has been an avid member of his high school’s debate team, and Jingsan got involved by learning to judge debate. In the last school year alone, he judged 22 debates at local and national tournaments, including National Speech & Debate qualification rounds. “It has been both humbling and inspiring to watch young students do deep research, work together to build cases, and debate with confidence, reasoning, and collegiality.”
CHIBE Family of Programs
Our faculty lead many initiatives in areas such as food policy, global health, health equity, technology infrastructure, health care payment policy, and more.
CHIBE helped serve as the accelerator for these groups through resources and mentorship.
Happenings at CHIBE
Singapore Collaboration
CHIBE affiliates collaborated with colleagues in Singapore and had meetings with the National University of Singapore and Penn President J. Larry Jameson.
Awards and Recognition
CHIBE wishes to congratulate the following faculty and staff for their impressive achievements. These awards showcase CHIBE’s culture of innovation and excellence.
Catherine Louise Auriemma, MD, MSHP
Named American Thoracic Society Fellow
Damon Centola, PhD
Named 2026 Guggenheim Fellow
Jalpa Doshi, PhD
2026 Health Economics and Outcomes Research Impact Award
ISPOR
Carmen Guerra, MD, MSCE, FACP
Inaugural Health Equity Scholarship or Research Award
Penn Medicine
Kevin Mahoney, MBA
100 Most Influential People in Healthcare
Modern Healthcare
61 CEO Influencers to Know in 2025
Becker’s Hospital Review
2025 Most Influential People in Philadelphia
Philadelphia Magazine
2025 Trailblazer in Health Care
City & State Pennsylvania
2026 Power100 List
Philly Business Journal
Raina Merchant, MD, MSHP, FAHA
Hospital and Health System Chief Transformation Officers to Know
Becker’s Hospital Review
Shivan Mehta, MD, MBA, MSHP
2025 Impact Honoree
City & State Pennsylvania
Amol Navathe, MD, PhD
Named Chair of MedPAC, the Medicare Payment Advisory Committee that advises Congress on Medicare payment
Mitesh Patel, MD, MBA, MS
Chief Transformation Officers to Know for 2025
Becker’s Hospital Review
Harsha Thirumurthy, PhD
Named CHIBE’s Inaugural Endowed Chair
Founders Professorship of Population Health
Named Fellow of Academy of Behavioral Medicine Research
Eric T. Roberts, PhD
Distinguished Clinical Research Achievement Award
Clinical Research Forum
Best Published Research Paper of the Year Award
Society of General Internal Medicine
Publication-of-the-Year Award
AcademyHealth
Aaron Schwartz, MD, PhD
Named One of 10 Emerging Leaders in Health and Medicine
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
About CHIBE
About Our Center
CHIBE is the leading scientific organization using behavioral economics to improve health.
Drawing on the expertise of faculty from across the University of Pennsylvania and beyond, CHIBE conducts behavioral economics research aimed at reducing the burden of disease from major health challenges, such as smoking, obesity, unhealthy diets, and medication non-adherence. CHIBE also works to increase the value of resources expended on health care to more efficiently improve health.
Since 2008, our faculty have produced research and scientific evidence, supported policymakers and leaders of programs with evidence to inform decision-making, and generated program and policy options. To maximize our impact, our work transcends partisan political boundaries.
Our Partners
We work with a variety of health systems, health plans, consumer companies, public service organizations, and NGOs. These organizations provide opportunities for us to develop and test promising ideas and avenues to scale those ideas that turn out to be impactful. We are grateful to these organizations for working with us in support of improving health for the millions of people they reach.
Funding Portfolio
CHIBE receives project-specific funding from foundation, corporate, and federal sponsors. Diversification of our portfolio has been a strategic priority over the past several years, and we have been successful in securing funding from several commercial entities and foundations.
In addition, CHIBE receives support from the University of Pennsylvania Health System and the Perelman School of Medicine that has enabled us to make strategic investments, strengthen our infrastructure, and support junior faculty and trainees. We thank all our funders for their support of our initiatives.
~$56M
Total Grant Activity in Fiscal Year 2026
Stay Connected
Follow us on Twitter @PennCHIBE, on BlueSky, and on LinkedIn. Sign up for our monthly Healthy Nudge newsletter, which keeps you up to speed on the latest developments in policy-relevant health behavioral economics research at CHIBE.
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423 Guardian Drive
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6021