CHTI Blog

Kirstin Leitner, a physician lead on the Healing at Home program, explains how a text messaging bot that uses natural language processing is helping patients in the postnatal period. She also shares strategies used to make the bot more effective, like educating patients on how to interact with it and incorporating algorithmic approaches with symptom reporting.

Patients who report lower pain scores, are younger, and have not taken opioids before are less likely to need opioids after common surgical procedures, a new study shows. The findings could be applied to tailor prescribing and reduce prolonged exposure to opioids and unused pills. The research was led by members of the Center for Insights to Outcomes and the Nudge Unit and leveraged Way to Health for data collection.

The PROStep study leveraged Way to Health to test whether a remote monitoring intervention could improve communication between patients and clinicians. Advanced cancer patients in both the usual care and intervention groups rated their clinicians' understanding of their symptoms and functional status highly, but there was no significant difference between groups.

More than 200 people from 50 institutions attended the Nudges in Health Care Symposium hosted by the Penn Medicine Nudge Unit in September. The event, centered this year on creating behaviorally informed organizations, provided a forum to share research and explore methods around applying behavioral science to enhance care delivery.

The 2023 Well City Challenge, a social impact competition to address Philadelphia’s health and wellness challenges, culminates with a community showcase and announcement of the grand prize winner on September 26. Meet the competitors and hear from CHCI's Elissa Klinger, who supported this year's program.