Everything you’re trying to accomplish comes down to one thing… getting people to do stuff. Behavioral economics, in its simplest terms, is the study of how and why people decide to do what they do (or don’t do). Whether you’re trying to sell, get users to adopt a new system or workflow, or make your staff feel comfortable coming back to work during a pandemic, understanding behavioral economics will greatly increase your chances of success.
Today we’re talking with Karen Horgan, CEO at VAL Health about how behavioral economics is being used in healthcare today, and how it should be used going forward to drive positive behavior change throughout the industry.
Behavioral economics is the last mile to transform healthcare. As an industry, we have a behavioral deficit, not an informational deficit.
Karen Horgan, CEO, VAL Health
No matter what you’re working on, there’s something here for you.
You’ll Learn
- How behavioral economics is used to influence your decisions every day
- How “changing the default” can drive dramatic behavior change overnight
- Why things like scarcity, exclusivity, and social proof are such powerful influencers of human behavior
- How one practice used behavioral economics to reduce no shows
- Why losses are doubly as powerful as gains in driving behavior change
- Why focus groups will often fail you
- How to use behavioral economics to help employees feel safe at work
- How to use behavioral economics to help patients feel safe going to appointments during the COVID-19 pandemic
- The importance of creating and maintaining a feedback loop when trying to promote preventative measures
- Using behavioral economics to influence up
- The importance of using simple language (I’m looking at you… everyone in healthcare )
- Why you should always make the right path the easy path
Today’s Guest
Karen Horgan
Karen co-founded VAL Health to apply behavioral economics to improve health and health care. A proven expert in developing high impact behavior change and engagement programs, Karen is commonly found presenting at leading industry conference and private speaking events including SXSW, HIMSS, the AHIP Institute, and the World Economic Forum. As the CEO, she has spearheaded the development of hundreds of behavior change programs that enable clients to overcome healthcare’s biggest challenges. Prior to starting VAL Health, Karen was Chief Marketing Officer at Keystone Strategy. Karen also previously led marketing and product management teams for early-stage technology companies and was a consultant with Bain and Company in Boston and Hong Kong. Karen holds an MBA from the Harvard Business School, a BA from the University of Pennsylvania, and a BS from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karen-sussman-horgan
VAL Health
VAL Health is the leading health-related behavioral economics consulting firm. We tackle the hardest problems in healthcare using proven behavioral economics science, pioneered by our academic co-founders and enhanced with our real-world experience. By meeting people where they are, we deliver sustained engagement and behavior change for clients, the leading payers, hospital systems and digital health companies.
Sign up for their monthly newsletter by sending an email to countmein@valhealth.com
Resources
- Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness
- Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, Revised Edition
- Pre-Suasion: A Revolutionary Way to Influence and Persuade
- VAL Health White Papers
- The #HCBiz Show #66: Finding the Right Words w/ Stacey Richter – we discuss another relevant book on human behavior – Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
And this is a great talk by Karen’s co-founder, David Asch. Worth checking out, especially for the graphs between the 9 and 10 minute marks.
Listen to the full interview right here:
You can also find this episode on your favorite podcast network such as:
Trying to drive change within your healthcare organization? Launching a new product? Having trouble getting decision-makers’ attention and buy-in?
We’ll help you understand the whole picture so that you can align your innovation with the things decision-makers care about. And then we’ll help you execute It’s not easy, but it’s possible and we’ll help you get there. Sign up here and we’ll keep you up to date on healthcare industry news with podcasts, blog posts, conference announcements and more. No fluff. No hype. Just the valuable (and often not-so-obvious) information you need to get things done.
The #HCBiz Show! is produced by Glide Health IT, LLC in partnership with Netspective Media.
Music by StudioEtar