The Penn Roybal Center on Behavioral Economics and Health: Solving for Scale and Impact with Design Thinking, Digital Platforms, and Dynamic Adaptation

In partnership with large health care and commercial entities that serve as field sites for testing and scaling interventions the goal of the proposed Penn Roybal Center is to accelerate the pace and increase the reach and impact of scientific discovery on the application of behavioral economics to health behavior change at scale. To achieve this goal, our proposal has three strategic foci: Design thinking, digital platforms, and dynamic adaptation. Design thinking ensures user-centeredness of and customized engagement with interventions, avoiding one-size-fits-none pitfalls. Digital platforms enable us to test promising interventions in ways that can readily be translated to scaled application and to better leverage scarce intervention resources, increasing the probability of scalability. Dynamic adaptation opens up possibilities to “learn as we go” during intervention trials using information on engagement and intervention responsiveness to drive further resource allocation decisions. This strategic focus complements several themes highlighted in the RFA: targeting mechanisms of behavior change (MoBC) common to multiple health behaviors, utilizing behavioral economics approaches to improve individual behavior, and leveraging technology to ensure fidelity and scalability. Deploying these strategies, the Behavioral Intervention Development Core will nurture early-stage pilots through the NIH Stage Model with a plan to advance to larger-scale (Stages III and IV) field studies conducted with private and public sector implementation partners. We will work with our strong network of collaborating organizations on implementation and dissemination (Stage V) of effective interventions. Our Administrative Core will provide infrastructure to support research activities in behavioral economics and health at the University of Pennsylvania and among affiliated faculty at other universities. Specific Aims are to: 1.) Facilitate and support research across the NIH Stage model that advances the translation of behavioral economic concepts to improved health and health behaviors for older adults (NIH Stages 0-V); 2.) Cultivate testing of mechanisms of behavior change and early-stage feasibility pilots (Stages 0-I); 3.) Support testing of promising Stage I ideas with potential to improve the health at scale in research and community settings (Stages II-IV); 4.) Collaborate with external health care organizations to disseminate our findings and support the implementation of effective interventions (NIH Stage V).