CHIBE in the News

Feb 17 2022
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HCPLive: Flu Shot Reservation Text Messaging May Improve Vaccination Rates

By In the News

Influenza vaccination uptake may be improved by health systems sending strategically-phrased text message reminders to patients, according to findings from a Philadelphia-based trial. The findings—which come in the same week as other research from Philadelphia showing Black patients’ buy-in to text-message telemedicine for blood pressuring monitoring, as well as findings from Finland showing improved flu vaccination rates in regions receiving reminder mail—are just the latest supporting individualized public health message strategies for regular vaccination. Led by Alison Buttenheim, PhD, MBA, of the Department of Family and Community Health at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, investigators sought to interpret…

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Feb 15 2022
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Next Big Idea Club: A Psychologist on Why We Love Sad Songs and Spicy Foods

By In the News

Think about your own favorite type of negative experience. Maybe you go to movies that make you cry, or scream, or gag. Or you might listen to sad songs. You might poke at sores, eat spicy foods, immerse yourself in painfully hot baths. Or climb mountains, run marathons, get punched in the face in gyms and dojos. All of this is what the psychologist Paul Rozin has called “benign masochism.” So why do you pursue this “benign masochism?” There’s no single explanation, of course. Choosing to suffer can serve social goals; it can display how tough we are or, in…

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Feb 10 2022
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Freakonomics MD: How Can You Choose the Best Doctor?

By In the News

David ASCH: We came upon the idea that we should evaluate medical training by its ability to produce doctors who deliver good care or good outcomes to patients. And we were pretty enthusiastic about that idea. It seems pretty logical, but I will say that at the time a lot of people had not been thinking along those lines. In most cases, I would say that people were evaluating residency programs by reputation, something I’d probably have to put into air quotes because I’m not really sure how reputation is created or whether it has any meaning compared to what…

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Feb 10 2022
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The Atlantic: How to Reclaim Normal Life Without Being ‘Done’

By In the News

Millions of Americans are now triply dosed with vaccines that can slash the odds of disease and death; a large fraction have an added bump of immunity from infection too. That’s making the net benefits of certain individual behaviors look all the more appealing, while collective risk remains abstract. Meanwhile, the cost of caution is only growing; many are weary of gaining marginal returns from the precautions that have swallowed their lives for 20-some months. “People don’t want to wait anymore,” Kenneth Carter, a psychologist and risk-behavior expert at Emory University, told me. Delayed gratification doesn’t work so well when…

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Feb 06 2022
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Business Insider: Why You Feel So Miserable About Life and Money Right Now

By In the News

Wages in the US have risen this year at the fastest rate since 1983. Plus, some Americans are still sitting on a savings stash a year after the last stimulus check went out. But no one seems to care. That’s because this all comes at a time when inflation is lingering at its highest level since 1982. George Loewenstein, a professor of economics and psychology at Carnegie Mellon University, told Insider incomes were starting to rise as a result of the labor shortage and a lot of Americans felt they had the opportunity to improve their situations. “But one second later, it’s grabbed away from…

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Feb 04 2022
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Healio: Programs that pay smokers to quit cost-effective from health care sector perspective

By In the News

Four different financial incentive programs for smoking cessation were cost-effective from the health care sector perspective, but more expensive from the employer perspective, which may hinder wider adoption, researchers reported. “The research was motivated by the fact that, although a randomized controlled trial published in The New England Journal of Medicine showed that financial incentives persuade more smokers to quit, the interventions’ significant upfront costs discourage their adoption,” Louise B. Russell, PhD, adjunct professor of medical ethics and health policy and senior fellow at the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics at the University of Pennsylvania, told Healio. “Our results…

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Jan 25 2022
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Penn Today: The origins of the opioid epidemic

By In the News

From Penn Today: A state prescription drug policy first adopted in 1939, and last ended in 2004, appears to have influenced where Purdue Pharma chose to market its opioid drug OxyContin upon launch in 1996. The consequences of that decision reverberate to this day, according to a new study in The Quarterly Journal of Economics by LDI senior fellow Abby Alpert and colleagues, who estimate that states with the prescription policy had 11.3 fewer overdose deaths per 100,000 people in 2017. The paper analyzes how public policy can influence and interact with commercial activities, leading to effects that could not be foreseen upon…

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Jan 24 2022
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The Atlantic: A Very Simple Way to Get America Boosted

By In the News

From The Atlantic: Theoretically, incentives should work. Offering people cash to change health behaviors—whether to quit smoking or keep up with exercise—made a difference in previous studies. Cash might provide a fence-sitter justification to get vaccinated, or it might offer cover for someone whose desire for a vaccine goes against local social norms. And even though the COVID vaccines are free, they come with indirect costs, such as lost wages when taking time off from work to get a shot. But theory is different from practice. “It was completely unprecedented for 24 states, more or less at the same time, to…

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Jan 23 2022
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Knowledge at Wharton: Giving Feedback That Works: Plant the Seeds of Confidence

By In the News

From Knowledge at Wharton:  Most managers dread giving feedback. Offering a blend of praise and criticism is supposed to help your team members do more of what they’re good at and improve in areas where they’ve missed the mark. But research shows it rarely works that way (see the Nano Tool, “The Annual Performance Review: Should You Eliminate It?”). In her book How to Change, Wharton professor Katy Milkman shares a different idea: work to build people’s confidence if you want them to achieve a goal. In Virgil’s words from around 20 BCE, “they can because they think they can.” Scientists…

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Jan 23 2022
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The Guardian: Hedonism is overrated – to make the best of life there must be pain, says this Yale professor

By In the News

From The Guardian: The simplest theory of human nature is hedonism– – we pursue pleasure and comfort. Suffering and pain are, by their very nature, to be avoided. The spirit of this view is nicely captured in The Epic of Gilgamesh: “Let your belly be full, enjoy yourself always by day and by night! Make merry each day, dance and play day and night… For such is the destiny of men.” And also by the Canadian rock band Trooper: “We’re here for a good time / Not a long time / So have a good time / The sun can’t shine…

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