Professor Dan Ariely: What can health learn from Behavioral Economics?

Every consumer-facing industry in the world is using insights from behavioral economics to drive their business – the healthcare sector is lagging behind in this respect. But if there’s one field that can’t afford to ignore behavioral economics, it’s health. Health is first and foremost about people. And yet, human behavior remains an underexposed and largely neglected aspect of the field of health, both in academic curricula and in the daily practice and knowledge of millions of doctors worldwide. Anticipating patient behavior and applying well-known techniques to influence their decisions can lead to improved health outcomes. Who better to make this connection than world-renowned behavioral economist Professor Dan Ariely? For this reason he was appointed Chair of the Joep Lange Institute Chair and Fellows program, to further the institute’s global health goal of making health markets work for the poor.

On November 9th, Ariely will be in Amsterdam at the invitation of the Joep Lange Institute. Professor Ariely will lead an expert workshop with health researchers, doctors and nurses to share insights and discuss how to best apply insights from behavioral economics to healthcare to improve health outcomes worldwide. After the workshop Ariely will deliver a public lecture hosted by the Chairman of the Executive Board of the Academic Medical Centre (AMC) of the University of Amsterdam, Professor Dr. Marcel Levi.