David A. Asch
- Professor of Medicine, Professor of Medical Ethics and Health Policy, Professor of Health Care Management, Professor of Operations, Information and Decisions
- Senior Vice Dean for Strategic Initiatives, Perelman School of Medicine
- John Morgan Professor
Contact Information
- Primary Email:
asch@wharton.upenn.edu - Office Phone:
(215) 746-2705
- office Address:
PCAM 6 South Tower - Dean's Suite
3400 Civic Center Boulevard
Philadelphia, PA 19104
Research Interests: behavioral economics, clinician and patient decision making, health care management, health policy, medical ethics, physician executives, technology assessment
Overview
Education
MD, Cornell University, 1984
MBA, The Wharton School, 1989
AB, Harvard University, 1980
Career and Recent Professional Awards; Teaching Award
Ken Shine Prize in Health Leadership, University of Texas, 2022
Publication-of-the-Year, AcademyHealth (with MK Delgado and others), 2022
Excellence in Innovation in Clinical Practice Award, Division of General Internal Medicine, 2022
ACTS Clinical and Translational Research Distinguished Educator Award for Innovation, 2022
Wharton Teaching Excellence Award, 2020
Distinguished Career Award, AcademyHealth, 2020
Publication-of-the-Year, AcademyHealth (with J Silber and others), 2020
Distinguished Investigator Award: Translation from Clinical Use into Public Benefit and Policy, Association of Clinical and Translational Science, 2019
Wharton Teaching Excellence Award, 2019
RWJF David E. Rogers Award – Association of American Medical Colleges, 2018
Wharton Health Care Alumni Association Achievement Award, 2017
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, 2012-2022
Director, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholars Program, 2013-2017
Senior Vice Dean for Strategic Initiatives, 2022-present
Research
Mark V. Pauly, Lawton R. Burns, David A. Asch, Kevin Volpp, Flaura Winston, Mary Naylor, Ralph Muller, Rachel Werner, Seemed Like a Good Idea: Alchemy versus Evidence-Based Approaches to Healthcare Management Innovation (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2022)
Colman Humphrey, Dylan Small, Shane T. Jensen, Kevin Volpp, David A. Asch, Jingsan Zhu, Andrea B. Troxel (2019), Modeling Lottery Incentives for Daily Adherence, Statistics in Medicine, 38 (15), pp. 2847-2867.
Mathias Basner, David A. Asch, Judy A. Shea, Lisa M. Bellini, Michele Carlin, Adrian J. Ecker, Susan K. Malone, Sanjay V. Desai, Alice L. Sternberg, James Tonascia, David M. Shade, Joel T. Katz, David W. Bates, Orit Even-Shoshan, Jeffrey H. Silber, Dylan Small, Kevin G. Volpp, Christopher G. Mott, Sara Coats, Daniel J. Mollicone, David F. Dinges for the iCOMPARE Research Group (2019), Sleep and Alertness in a Duty-Hour Flexibility Trial in Internal Medicine, New England Journal of Medicine, 380, pp. 915-923.
Jeffrey H. Silber, Lisa M. Bellini, Judy A. Shea, Sanjay V. Desai, David F. Dinges, Mathias Basner, Orit Even-Shoshan, Alexander S. Hill, Lauren L. Hochman, Joel T. Katz, Richard N. Ross, David M. Shade, Dylan Small, Alice L. Sternberg, James Tonascia, Kevin G. Volpp, David A. Asch, for the iCOMPARE Research Group (2019), Patient Safety Outcomes under Flexible and Standard Resident Duty-Hour Rules, New England Journal of Medicine, 380, pp. 905-914.
Mitesh S. Patel, Kevin G. Volpp, Roy Rosin, Scarlett L. Bellamy, Dylan Small, Jack Heuer, Susan Sproat, Chris Hyson, Nancy Haff, Samantha M. Lee, Lisa Wesby, Karen Hoffer, David Shuttleworth, Devon H. Taylor, Victoria Hilbert, Jingsan Zhu, Lin Yang, Xingmei Wang, David A. Asch (2018), A Randomized, Controlled Trial of Lottery-Based Financial Incentives to Increase Physical Activity Among Overweight and Obese Adults, American Journal of Health Promotion, (in press).
Judy A. Shea, Jeffrey H. Silber, Sanjay V. Desai, David F. Dinges, Lisa M. Bellini, James Tonascia, Alice L. Sternberg, Dylan Small, David M. Shade, Joel Thorp Katz, Mathias Basner, Krisda H. Chaiyachati, Orit Even-Shoshan, David Westfall Bates, Kevin G. Volpp, David A. Asch, the iCOMPARE Research Group (2018), Development of the Individualised Comparative Effectiveness of Models Optimizing Patient Safety and Resident Education (iCOMPARE) Trial: a Protocol Summary of a National Cluster-randomised Trial of Resident Duty Hour Policies in Internal Medicine, BMJ Open, 8(9):e021711.
Mitesh S. Patel, Gregory W. Kurtzman, Sneha Kannan, Dylan Small, Alexander Morris, Steve Honeywell Jr, Damien Leri, Charles A. L. Rareshide, Susan C. Day, Kevin B. Mahoney, Kevin G. Volpp, David A. Asch (2018), Effect of an Automated Patient Dashboard Using Active Choice and Peer Comparison Performance Feedback to Physicians on Statin Prescribing Rates: The PRESCRIBE Cluster Randomized Clinical Trial, JAMA Network Open, 1(3):e180818.
Sanjay V. Desai, David A. Asch, Lisa M. Bellini, Krisda H. Chaiyachati, Manqing Liu, Alice L. Sternberg, James Tonascia, Alyssa M. Yeager, Jeremy M. Asch, Joel T. Katz, Mathias Basner, David W. Bates, Karl Y. Bilimoria, David F. Dinges, Orit Even-Shoshan, David M. Shade, Jeffrey H. Silber, Dylan Small, Kevin G. Volpp, and Judy A. Shea for the iCOMPARE Research Group (2018), Education Outcomes in a Duty-Hour Flexibility Trial in Internal Medicine, New England Journal of Medicine, 378, pp. 1494-1508.
Christian Terwiesch, Kevin Volpp, David A. Asch (2017), Reimagining Provider Visits as the New Tertiary Care, Annals of Internal Medicine.
David A. Asch, Christian Terwiesch, Kevin Volpp (2017), How to Reduce Primary Care Doctors’ Workloads while Improving Care, Harvard Business Review.
Teaching
All Courses
HCIN6070 - Translating Ideas
This course applies state-of-the-art innovation methodologies to improve health care delivery for providers, and outcomes and experience for patients. It begins with an extended discussion of how we might apply principles of analytical and scientific thinking including rhetorical analysis and behavioral economics to operational problems in health care. And it examines strategies for identifying and solving those problems; including ethnographic research to reveal what others have missed; problem reframing to enable high-impact solution directions; intentional divergence to unlock teams from initial, less productive concepts; rapid hypothesis validation to learn quickly at low cost whether and how best to invest in scaling; and designing delightful experiences, which drive word-of-mouth and catalyze the spread of desirable behaviors.
HCIN6080 - Health Insurance Dsgn & Value
This is a 6-week, 1 cu, online course that pairs two complementary course topics. In the first 3 weeks, you will study Health Insurance and Benefit Design with David Asch, MD, MBA and Kevin G. Volpp, MD, PhD. In the final 3 weeks, you will study Driving Value in Health Care with Lee Fleisher, MD. Strategies for Health Insurance and Benefit Design: Recent efforts to increase the amount of health produced through health insurance benefits relative to the cost have utilized a number of strategies. These have included high deductible health plans, price transparency, value-based insurance design, simplifying health plan designs, and providing incentives geared to influencing utilization. In this course, we will discuss some of the main challenges facing health insurers, efforts to reduce growth in entitlement spending, and research that uses on the effectiveness of different strategies to modify behavior through the use of incentives embedded within health insurance design. This course will emphasize both understanding and practical applications of this knowledge through a combination of lectures and interviews with expert practitioners. Following completion of this course, students will have a deeper understanding of some of the tradeoffs inherent in the approaches insurers are taking to provide greater value and health improvement for their beneficiaries. Paired with Driving Value in Health Care. We explore methods for analyzing value drivers and survey strategies to improve value (defined as quality over cost) in a health care system. Most policy experts agree that by focusing on value, we can align incentives for different groups within the health care system to address our most pressing problems. This course gives you the tools to do that by examining topics including the determinants of value, methodologies for understanding value drivers, and real-world examples of improving value through quality improvement. Through your work, you will identify gaps in quality, track inefficiencies in the patient experience, and ultimately build a persuasive presentation focused on reducing low-value care.
HCMG8990 - Independent Study
Arranged with members of the Faculty of the Health Care Systems Department. For further information contact the Department office, Room 204, Colonial Penn Center, 3641 Locust Walk, 898-6861.
HPR9900 - Hpr Thesis I
Each student completes a mentored research project that includes a thesis proposal and a thesis committee and results in a publishable scholarly product. Prerequisite: Course only open to Masters of Science in Health Policy Research students.
HPR9901 - Hpr Thesis II
Each student completes a mentored research project that includes a thesis proposal and a thesis committee and results in a publishable scholarly product. Prerequisite: Course only open to Masters of Science in Health Policy Research students.
In the News
Knowledge at Wharton
- With High-deductible Employer Health Plans, Who Wins?, Knowledge at Wharton - 6/17/2019
- Less Logic, More Health: How Behavioral Economics Can Improve Incentives , Knowledge at Wharton - 5/17/2016
Activity
Latest Research
In the News
With High-deductible Employer Health Plans, Who Wins?High-deductible employer health plans are cheaper for businesses and may also be cheaper for employees. But are they too much of a gamble?…Read More
Knowledge at Wharton - 6/17/2019