David Asch

Education

• MD, Cornell University, 1984
  
• MBA, The Wharton School, 1989
  
• AB, Harvard University, 1980

Career and Recent Professional Awards; Teaching Award

• Article of the Year Award AcademyHealth, 2016
  
• Luigi Mastroianni Clinical Innovator Award, 2014
  
• Distinguished Graduate Award, Perelman, School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, 2012
  
• John M. Eisenberg National Award for Career Achievement in Research, Society of General Internal Medicine, 2010
  
• Alpha Omega Alpha Robert J. Glaser Distinguished Teacher Award, Association of American Medical Colleges, 2009
  
• Under Secretary’s Award for Outstanding Achievement in Health Services Research, Department of Veterans Affairs, 2008
  
• Elected Member, Institute of Medicine, 2007
  
• Christian R. and Mary F. Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching, 2006
  
• Elected Member, Association of American Physicians, 2005
  
• Arthur K. Asbury Outstanding Faculty Mentor Award, 2004
  
• Research Mentorship Award, Society of General Internal Medicine, 2004
  
• Robert C. Witt Research Award, American Risk and Insurance Association, 2000
  
• Samuel P. Martin, III Award in Health Services Research, 1999
  
• Outstanding Investigator Award in Clinical Science, American Federation for Medical Research, 1999
  
• Nellie Westerman Prize, American Federation for Medical Research, 1998
  
• Outstanding Paper Award, Society for Medical Decision Making, 1997
  
• Alice Hersh New Investigator Award, AcademyHealth, 1997
  
• John M. Eisenberg Teaching Award, 1995

Academic Positions Held

• Wharton: 1998 present
• Named Robert D. Eilers Professor, 1998-2012
  
• Executive Director, Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics 1998-2012
• University of Pennsylvania: 1989 present
• Chief, Section of General Internal Medicine, Philadelphia VA Medical Center, 1993-1996
  
• Director, Center for Health Equity Research and Promotion, Department of Veterans Affairs, 2001-2012
  
• Director, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health and Society Scholars Program, 2002-2014
  
• Executive Director, Penn Medicine Center for Health Care Innovation, 2012-present
  
• Director, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholars Program, 2013-present

Scott Halpern, Benjamin French, Dylan Small, Kathryn Saulsgiver, Michael Harhay, Janet AudrainMcGovern, George Loewenstein, Troyen Brennan, David A. Asch, Kevin Volpp (2015), Randomized Trial of Four FinancialIncentive Programs for Smoking Cessation, New England Journal of Medicine, 372, pp. 21082117.

Benjamin French, Dylan Small, Julie Novak, Kathryn Saulsgiver, Michael Harhay, David A. Asch, Kevin Volpp, Scott Halpern (2015), PreferenceAdaptive Randomization in Comparative Effectiveness Studies, Trials, 16 (99), pp. 19.

Kevin Volpp, C Terwiesch, AB Troxel, S Mehta, David A. Asch (2014), Making the RCT more useful for innovation with evidencebased evolutionary testing, Healthcare: The Journal of Delivery Science and Innovation, 1:47.

Raina M. Merchant, Heather Griffis, Yoonhee P. Ha, Austin Kilaru, Allison Sellers, John C. Hershey, Shawndra Hill, Emily KramerGolinkoff, Lindsay Nadkarni, Margaret Debski, Kevin Padrez, Lance B. Becker, David A. Asch (2014), Hidden in Plain Sight: A Crowdsourced Public Art Contest to Make Automated External Defibrillators More Visible , American Journal of Public Health,, 104, pp. 23062312.

Charlene Wong, David A. Asch, Cjloe Vinoya, Carol Ford, Robert J. Town, Raina M. Merchant (2014), The Experience of Young Adults on HealthCare.gov: Suggestions for Improvement , Annals of Internal Medicine , 161 (3), pp. 231232.

David A. Asch, Christian Terwiesch, Kevin Mahoney, Roy Rosin (2014), Insourcing Health Care Innovation , New England Journal of Medicine, Vol. 370 (No. 19), pp. 17751777.

Aditi Sen, Taylor B. Sewell, E. Brooks Riley, Beth Stearman, Scarlett L. Bellamy, Michelle F. Hu, Yuanyuan Tao, Jingsan Zhu, James D. Park, George Loewenstein, David A. Asch, Kevin Volpp (2014), Financial Incentives for HomeBased Health Monitoring: A Randomized Controlled Trial, Journal of General Internal Medicine, 29 (5), pp. 770777.

Abstract: BACKGROUND: Home wireless device monitoring could play an important role in improving the health of patients with poorly controlled chronic diseases, but daily engagement rates among these patients may be low. OBJECTIVE: To test the effectiveness of two different magnitudes of financial incentives for improving adherence to remotemonitoring regimens among patients with poorly controlled diabetes. DESIGN: Randomized, controlled trial. (Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT01282957). PARTICIPANTS: Seventyfive patients with a hemoglobin A1c greater than or equal to 7.5% recruited from a Primary Care Medical Home practice at the University of Pennsylvania Health System. INTERVENTIONS: Twelve weeks of daily homemonitoring of blood glucose, blood pressure, and weight (control group; n = 28); a lottery incentive with expected daily value of $2.80 (n = 26) for daily monitoring; and a lottery incentive with expected daily value of $1.40 (n = 21) for daily monitoring. MAIN MEASURES: Daily use of three homemonitoring devices during the threemonth intervention (primary outcome) and during the threemonth followup period and change in A1c over the intervention period (secondary outcomes). KEY RESULTS: Incentive arm participants used devices on a higher proportion of days relative to control (81% low incentive vs. 58%, P = 0.007; 77% high incentive vs. 58%, P = 0.02) during the threemonth intervention period. There was no difference in adherence between the two incentive arms (P = 0.58). When incentives were removed, adherence in the high incentive arm declined while remaining relatively high in the low incentive arm. In month 6, the low incentive arm had an adherence rate of 62% compared to 35% in the high incentive arm (P = 0.015) and 27% in the control group (P = 0.002). CONCLUSIONS: A daily lottery incentive worth $1.40 per day improved monitoring rates relative to control and had significantly better efficacy once incentives were removed than a higher incentive.

Kevin Volpp, Christian Terwiesch, Andrea Troxel, David A. Asch (2013), Making the RCT More Useful for Innovation with EvidenceBased Evolutionary Testing , Healthcare, Vol. 1 (No. 1), pp. 47.

Kevin Volpp, David A. Asch, G Lowenstein (2012), Choosing Wisely: low value services, utilization, and patient cost sharing , JAMA, 16: 16351636.

G Lowenstein, Kevin Volpp, David A. Asch (2012), Incentives in Health: Different Prescriptions for Physicians and Patients , JAMA, 307(13): 13751376.

Past Courses

HCMG203 CLIN ISS IN HLTH CR MGMT

This course will explore the effects of the changing health care environment on the physician, patient and health care manager. It is intended for any undergraduate with an interest in how 1/6th of the American economy is organized as well as those planning careers as health care providers and managers. The course complements other health care courses (that take a societal perspective) by focusing on the individuals who participate in the health care enterprise. There are no prerequisites, as the course will stand on its own content. The course will be divided into modules that focus on the participants of the health care process and the process itself. We will analyze the patient, the doctor, and manager in light of the patientdoctor interaction, the turbulent health care marketplace, expensive new technologies,resource allocation, and ethics.

Knowledge @ Wharton

Less Logic, More Health: How Behavioral Economics Can Improve Incentives , Knowledge @ Wharton 05/17/2016