The Nudges in Health Care Symposium is an annual event organized by the Penn Medicine Nudge Unit since 2018. The goals of this event are to:
- Assemble individuals from health organizations interested in applying behavioral science or forming nudge units
- Share insights on lessons learned from implementing nudges in health care
- Network and build collaborations across the health care sector
The next symposium will take place September 11–12, 2025, in Philadelphia. Abstract submissions are open through May 23. Visit the 2025 symposium webpage for more details!
We invite you to explore this page and linked content to learn more about our past symposia. You can also join our mailing list to receive symposium updates.
Past Symposia
Expand the sections below to find information, agendas, and recordings from our previous symposia.
2024 Symposium
Our 2024 program, which took place September 26 and 27, featured keynotes by Leora Horwitz, director of the Center for Healthcare Innovation and Delivery Science at NYU Langone Health, and Amy Bucher, chief behavioral officer and co-director of the Behavioral Reinforcement Learning Lab at Lirio. The two-day event included "Stories From the Field" sessions with short research presentations, a fireside chat with Roy Rosin and Thomas Lee, a poster session, and workshops.
2023 Symposium
In September 2023, the nudge symposium brought together more than 200 people from 50 organizations nationwide to share insights about creating behaviorally enabled organizations. The program featured keynotes by Elizabeth Linos, faculty director of The People Lab at the Harvard Kennedy School, and Kevin Volpp, director of the Penn Center for Health Incentives and Behavioral Economics, and explored topics such as nudging with well-being in mind and applications of artificial intelligence.
2022 Webinar
Experts in behavioral economics and implementation science came together virtually on October 14, 2022, to share their perspectives on scaling in an event hosted by the Penn Medicine Nudge Unit.
Headlining the program was John A. List, an economist and the author of The Voltage Effect: How to Make Good Ideas Great and Great Ideas Scale. After a keynote by List, past Nudge Unit leaders Mitesh Patel, Rinad Beidas, and Srinath Adusumalli joined present Nudge director Kit Delgado for a panel discussion.
2021 Symposium
The third Nudges in Health Care Symposium was held virtually on May 20, 2021. More than 400 people representing over 200 organizations from across the world tuned in to hear from featured speakers, including David Halpern of the Behavioural Insights Team, Susan Lucas Collins of Twilio, and Mohan Balachandran of Way to Health.
2019 Symposium
At the 2019 Nudges in Health Care Symposium, we assembled health systems interested in implementing nudges or forming nudge units to share insights, network, and build collaborations.
Among the speakers at the two-day event were Lori Melichar, Senior Director of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and Stacey Chang, Executive Director of the Design Institute for Health at the Dell Medical School at the University of Texas at Austin.
2018 Symposium
To disseminate lessons learned and better understand ways to address common barriers, we hosted the inaugural Nudge Units in Health Care Symposium in September 2018.
Executives and researchers from 22 health systems across the United States and Canada attended the event. The symposium began with a series of talks, including an address from Mitesh Patel, director of the Penn Medicine Nudge Unit, a question-and-answer session with Penn Medicine executive leadership, and a keynote by Cass Sunstein, co-author of the book Nudge. Attendees then engaged in a series of design sessions focused on implementing nudges in health care.
Stay tuned for information regarding our next symposium, or join our mailing list to be notified of updates.
