HCDI at 8: Building on Eight Years of Randomized Evaluations to Improve Health Care Delivery

Since 2013, the US Health Care Delivery Initiative has supported randomized evaluations of strategies that aim to make health care delivery in the United States more efficient, effective, and equitable. Over the last eight years, HCDI has collaborated with academics from various disciplines, health systems, insurers, governments, and nonprofits to build a robust base of rigorous evidence on health care delivery, a field where few randomized evaluations were employed just a decade ago.

HCDI at 8: Building on Eight Years of Randomized Evaluations to Improve Health Care Delivery—a free virtual conference open to all—will convene researchers, practitioners, and policymakers to share key lessons learned from the past eight years. Over five dynamic sessions, our speakers and panelists will discuss the importance of strong cross-sectoral and interdisciplinary research partnerships. We’ll also explore how randomized evaluations can be used to answer questions on a range of important health policy topics—including social determinants of health, health care payment reform, and racial disparities in health outcomes—to improve the lives of Americans, particularly of those experiencing poverty.

Agenda & speakers  

Welcome Remarks (12:30–12:50pm ET)

• Amy Finkelstein, MIT and J-PAL North America

Using Randomized Evaluations to Answer Open Questions in Health Care Policy: The Case of Workplace Wellness (12:50–1:10pm ET)

Previous observational research suggests that workplace wellness programs improve health outcomes for participating employees, but likely overstates the positive health impacts of the $8 billion dollar industry due to methodological limitations. This presentation will focus on how randomized evaluations have helped challenge conventional wisdom on the efficacy of workplace wellness programs and will discuss the broader implications of applying rigorous research to important questions in health care delivery. 

• David Molitor, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Addressing Social Determinants of Health through Research Partnerships (1:10–1:55pm ET)

Health systems are increasingly investing in programs that address the social determinants of health. This panel will share the lessons learned by practitioners and researchers working collaboratively on evaluations aimed at reducing health disparities, including programs to overcome food insecurity and the burden of medical debt. Panelists will highlight the elements of strong research partnerships and how these evaluations can inform policies to address the social determinants of health. 

• Dr. Jeffrey Brenner, Primary Care Startup Founder
• Joseph Doyle, MIT
• Allison Hess, Geisinger Health System
• Dr. John Bulger, Geisinger Health System
• Ray Kluender, Harvard University 
• Allison Sesso, RIP Medical Debt

Implementing RCTs in Large Health Systems: The Case of Health Care Payment Reform (2:00–2:40pm ET)

System-wide policies such as payment reforms impact health care at a major scale but are typically considered an impractical environment for RCTs. This panel will highlight randomized evaluations of Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) payment reforms, including one for hip and knee replacements and one for cardiovascular disease risk reduction, focusing on the feasibility and value of using RCTs when evaluating at scale. Panelists will also discuss how to embed evaluations in the development of new policies and programs when working at scale.

• Dr. Darshak Sanghavi, UMass Memorial Medical Group 
• Neale Mahoney, Stanford University
• Mark Miller, Arnold Ventures

Strategies to Reduce Racial Disparities in Health Outcomes (2:40–3:00pm ET)

Rigorous research can help address systemic challenges to achieving health equity that seem intractable by breaking them down into answerable questions. This presentation will highlight research aimed at reducing racial disparities by examining interventions that seek to better understand how trust and messaging can improve health outcomes, information gaps, and take-up of services as well as a discussion of topics for future study. 

• Dr. Marcella Alsan, Harvard University and J-PAL North America
• Dr. Fatima Cody Stanford, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School

Questions

Please contact Hannah Reuter with any questions.