Scott D. Halpern, MD, PhD, MBE

 

Scott Halpern is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine. Dr. Halpern’s research combines empirical approaches from the fields of epidemiology, health services research, and the decision-making sciences with conceptual work grounded in moral philosophy.

He applies these approaches in two related fields. First, he examines the allocation of scarce healthcare resources including ICU beds and services, solid-organ transplants, and blood products.  In this regard, he seeks to understand how tradeoffs are made when the interests of individuals conflict with the interests of groups, and how these tradeoffs could be made more efficiently and equitably.  Second, he examines the use of behavioral economic approaches, including framing effects, default options, and financial incentives, to improve patients’ decisions related to selections of end-of-life care, smoking cessation, participation in randomized clinical trials, and other health-related behaviors.