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November 16, 2016, 12:00 PM

In November 2016, Johns Hopkins University Press published Nudging Health: Health Law and Behavioral Economics, co-edited by Petrie-Flom Center Faculty Director I. Glenn Cohen, Executive Director Holly Fernandez Lynch, and Christopher T. Robertson, Professor of Law and Associate Dean for Research and Innovation, James E. Rogers College of Law, the University of Arizona. This edited volume stems from the Center’s 2014 annual conference, which brought together leading experts to build on the success of the behavioral economics movement in order to further develop scholarly discussion of key issues in health law policy, bioethics, and biotechnology by addressing both broad conceptual questions and more specific policy applications.

Behavioral science has swept the fields of economics and law through the study of nudges, cognitive biases, and decisional heuristics—but it has only recently begun to impact the conversation on health care. Nudging Health wrestles with some of the thorny philosophical issues, legal limits, and conceptual questions raised by behavioral science as applied to health law and policy. The volume frames the fundamental issues surrounding health nudges by addressing ethical questions. Panelists will discuss some of the issues addressed in the book: Does cost-sharing for health expenditures cause patients to make poor decisions? Is it right to make it difficult for people to opt out of having their organs harvested for donation when they die? Are behavioral nudges paternalistic? The contributors examine specific applications of behavioral science, including efforts to address health care costs, improve vaccination rates, and encourage better decision-making by physicians. They wrestle with questions regarding the doctor-patient relationship and defaults in healthcare while engaging with larger, timely questions of healthcare reform.

Panelists

  • Cass R. Sunstein, JD, Harvard Law School

  • Jerry Avorn, MD, Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, and Chief of the Division of Pharmacoepidemiology and Pharmacoeconomics, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital

  • Abigail Moncrieff, JD, Associate Professor of Law and Peter Paul Career Development Professor, Boston University School of Law

  • Moderators: I. Glenn Cohen, JD, Professor of Law and Faculty Director of the Petrie-Flom Center, Harvard Law School (co-editor) and Holly Fernandez Lynch, JD, MBioethics, Executive Director of the Petrie-Flom Center (co-editor)

Order the book now from Johns Hopkins University Press - use the code HNAF and receive a 30% discount!

Learn More!

Check out video from the Nudging Health conference!

This event was free and open to the public.

Sponsored by the Harvard Law School Library and the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School.

Tags

bioethics   doctor patient relationship   economics   health care finance   health care reform   health law policy   holly fernandez lynch   human tissue   i. glenn cohen   insurance   public health   regulation   vaccines