CHTI Blog

Researchers led by CHTI's Austin Kilaru found that emergency department (ED) patients with public or no health insurance were often eligible for unclaimed state or federal benefits, and that many patients were interested in getting help from a hospital-based team to apply for their missing benefits. Upcoming work will test strategies to connect ED patients with such benefits.

A study by CHTI's Sharath Guntuku and colleagues found that computational models trained to detect depression from social media posts failed to predict depression among Black users. The researchers identified race-based differences in the expression of depression and underscored the need to understand such differences before these AI methods are used in clinical practice.

Funded by a $5 million grant, the Penn PORTAL program will support training and research to accelerate "learning health system" science – in which internal data and experience are integrated with external evidence, and that knowledge is put into practice – at Penn Medicine and in the wider Philadelphia region. Nudge Unit faculty director Kit Delgado is a co-lead of the program, and the Nudge Unit will provide guidance on innovation management and design strategy for PORTAL pilots.

The PennHOPES program, supported by CHTI, aims to brighten the experiences of patients by reimbursing providers for small, personal gifts purchased for patients with long hospital stays.

Interviewing Black patients about their perspectives on race and racism in the context of emergency care, researchers identified prevalent themes such as mistrust in the medical system and personal experiences with racism. Insights from the study can direct future work to create antiracist cultures in the emergency department and other care settings.