Center for Health Care Transformation and Innovation @ Penn Medicine

Excited to see two studies from CHTI researchers featured in Penn Today! ?? Small incentives drive lasting seatbelt habits, cut unbuckled trips by a third Link: https://lnkd.in/ewNvgjav Research from the Perelman School of Medicine and Penn Medicine’s Nudge Unit that incentivized drivers of connected cars with reward money to build and maintain seatbelt habits shows promise for promoting safer, consistent buckling behavior. This study was led by Nudge's Jeff Ebert and M. Kit Delgado and was a collaboration with General Motors Insurance. ?? Opioid disposal kits may help patients dispose of unneeded painkillers Link: https://lnkd.in/eJAsfTdQ Doctors often prescribe more opioids than patients need, and those extra painkillers can lead to misuse and harm. Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics (Penn LDI) senior fellow Anish Agarwal and colleagues tested an inexpensive solution: a disposal kit that encourages patients to dispose of the opioid painkillers they didn’t use. The kits help patients disable pills by mixing them with water and a powdered polymer gel, which then can be thrown safely in the trash. Kudos to the studies' co-authors including Ruiqi "Rachel" Yan, Sadie Friday, Dylan Small, Catherine C. McDonald, PhD, RN, FAAN, Kelsey Bartolozzi, Eric Shan, Ruiying (Aria) Xiong, Michael Katzman, Zarina Ali, and Daniel Lee!

The Center for Health Justice is co-hosting a documentary film series on opioid awareness and action! Join us for this two-part series on place April 16 and 30.

It's been five years since the COVID-19 pandemic was declared. CHTI's executive director and chief transformation officer Raina Merchant – who also serves as an emergency medicine physician – reflected on the pandemic onset in a CBS News segment that aired this week. "It seems like it was almost yesterday. So much changed overnight," she recalled. "We had to be really nimble to respond to so many changes in information and how we could optimize care for patients." Watch the CBS segment: https://lnkd.in/ex7NudCz As part of Penn Medicine's robust response to the challenges of the pandemic, CHTI launched a number of projects to help patients, clinicians, and our community. Here are some: * COVID Watch (https://lnkd.in/evapVcn5), a text-based program that permitted remote symptom monitoring and freed up clinic space for more severe cases. *A mental health platform (https://lnkd.in/g_3V9k9b) to help our health care workers, collaborated on vaccine clinics for the community (https://lnkd.in/eNrcb3v4) *A platform enabling hospital staff to safely and efficiently access healthy and affordable meals (https://lnkd.in/egb9AYsK)

Way to Health (W2H), our technology platform powering behavior change interventions, had a productive year in 2024, launching 47 programs and now supporting around 230! The team made some big changes to the platform, too, adding great new features and improving user experience. Program highlights include: * Refill Express, making pharmacy refilling quicker and easier (shout out to the Pharmacy team led by Laura Hallisey, Pharm.D, MBA, MS & Christopher Whritenour, PharmD, MBA, MS) * DOTbot, providing automated text-based outreach to patients with diabetes and leading to improvements in lab and office visit completion (shout out to the Primary Care team including Marguerite Balasta, Corinne Rhodes, Gaibriel De Guzman, MHA) * Automatic arrival times notifications sent to patients undergoing procedures, which have reduced staff effort and show promise in reducing no-shows and same-day cancellations (shout out to the Peri-Op team led by Sunilka Thompson, MSN, RN, CPXP, NE-BC and Anna Lee Carilo DNP, RN, NE-BC, CPAN) Learn more in W2H's 2024 year in review: https://lnkd.in/eTyUMNvV The Way to Health team is a fantastic team of 14: Mohan Balachandran, Michael Josephs, Kyle McGrogan, Sadie Friday, Ben Rosenbach, Aaron L., Skip Coon, Sarah Milinski, Adriana Discher, James Woods, Jacob Van Osten, William Lear, Dymon Moore, and Laurel Di Fonzo. Congratulations on all you've accomplished!

Each year, the Clinical Research Forum honors outstanding clinical research studies. CHTI members contributed to two of the 2025 finalists making the organization’s Top 20 list for the Clinical Achievement Awards! Our web-based platform Way to Health was used to run both of these studies, and the driving safety study was led by the Nudge Unit. ? “A randomized trial of behavioral interventions yielding sustained reductions in distracted driving" – with Jeff Ebert, M. Kit Delgado, Ruiying (Aria) Xiong, Aaron L., Neda Khan, Dina Abdel-Rahman, Roy Rosin, & colleagues. Read the paper in PNAS: https://lnkd.in/gT6Jucti ? ?“Effect of gamification, financial incentives, or both to increase physical activity among patients at high risk of cardiovascular events" – led by Penn physician Alexander Fanaroff. Read the paper in Circulation: https://lnkd.in/gh-2u6dh

We’re thrilled to welcome LDI Fellow Dr. Raina Merchant from the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine to deliver the 2025 Charles C. Leighton, MD Memorial Lecture on March 21! She will share actionable strategies for health care transformation, exploring innovation, data-driven decision-making, and interdisciplinary collaboration. Register today: https://lnkd.in/eZDsHE85

Learn about the amazing work of CHTI's Center for Health Justice, led by Dr. Gina South, and their collaborators to uplift community health through greening initiatives, economic interventions, and more!

??? Two weeks left to submit your proposal to improve health care delivery using a nudge! More info at https://lnkd.in/ey97NVvn

? Presenting the CHTI 2023-2024 Impact Report! CHTI transforms health care delivery at Penn Medicine and the health of our broader community by augmenting the capabilities of our innovative workforce and partner groups. Check out our impact report to see examples of where we are bolstering progress and learn more about how we work. We are so grateful to our many collaborators and supporters across the health system and community, and we are excited about all that we can accomplish together in the years ahead! View the report: https://lnkd.in/eehwhWgV

?? Nominate a Penn MS4 for the innovation prize! Penn/UPHS colleagues, have you worked with an outstanding PSOM student graduating this year who has sought to advance health care or education? We invite you to nominate them for the Langer Prize, which is awarded at graduation. The submission deadline is Friday, February 21. Nomination form: https://lnkd.in/en8h97Gs?