Blog

Want to stay in the know? We share news stories and publications about work happening at the Center for Insights to Outcomes, the Nudge Unit, Way to Health, the Population Health Lab, the Center for Health Justice, and the Center for Precision Resource Utilization each month. Subscribe to receive the CHTI Month in Review newsletter and add us to your contact list to ensure that messages make it to your inbox.

 

Leora Horwitz speaking to symposium attendees

Highlights from the sixth Nudges in Health Care Symposium

Blog Post |

The Penn Medicine Nudge Unit’s annual symposium gathered health care practitioners, researchers, and leaders to share practices, build skills, and explore new trends in behavioral nudges for better patient and clinician outcomes.

Lineart of a Black patient in an ED bed

A path to dismantling racism in the emergency department

Featured news |

In an opinion piece, Anish Agarwal and colleagues urge emergency departments to uncover and address inequitable practices. The authors suggest measures to mitigate biases associated with queue jumping, behavioral flags, triage, and referrals and recommend partnering with patients and communities to improve emergency care.

Shivan draws a diagram on a white board in front of team members seated at a table

The Population Health Lab: Multiplying impact in preventive and chronic care

Blog Post |

The Population Health Lab at Penn Medicine partners with clinical teams to design, assess, and scale behaviorally focused interventions to advance care at the population level.

COBALT program on mobile device

Mental health of care workers provided with a well-being platform improves more with SMS "pushes"

Featured news |

Depression and anxiety scores of Penn Medicine employees significantly improved with access to the mental health platform Cobalt, finds a clinical trial led by the Center for Insights to Outcomes. Greater gains were experienced by participants who received a text message intervention connecting them to information about mental health, assessments, and care offerings.

Split image showing a clinician holding an endoscope at top and a FIT kit sample tube at bottom, with a question mark overlaid in between the images

Choice of colorectal cancer tests increases screening rates

Featured news |

Population Health Lab researchers offered different colorectal cancer screening methods – an at-home fecal immunochemical test (FIT), a colonoscopy, or a choice of either – to patients of a community health center to learn which option led to the highest screening rates. Patients offered the choice had the highest completion rate, double that of those in the colonoscopy-only group.