Davene R. Wright, PhD

Introduction

I am an Associate Professor in the Department of Population Medicine, a research and academic partnership between the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute and Harvard Medical School. There, I am the Interim Director of the Division of Child Health Research and Policy. 

I am a decision scientist, interested in the study of how stakeholders make decisions and how they can make better decisions in the presence of uncertainty, complexity, and competing values. My research aims to design health care interventions and policies that can improve access to effective and efficient health care for patients with chronic diseases like obesity and diabetes. I specialize in leading interdisciplinary studies that link a variety of decision sciences methods and related techniques including stated preference elicitation, economic evaluation, simulation modeling, health services research methods, and qualitative research.

Sample research questions I seek to answer

• What health insurance plans do people chronic conditions think will work best for them? Were they right?

• Do interventions designed based on quantitatively elicited patient preferences improve adherence to recommended health care?

• How do parents and adolescents make decisions about adolescent health care together?

• What is the business case for health care payers to sponsor financial incentive interventions for chronic disease management?

• Do (and if so, how do) parents think about their child's long-term obesity trajectory and related health risks?

• How can we ensure access to effective, but expensive new technologies for managing pediatric chronic conditions?

• What are efficient policy levers for reducing the prevalence of childhood obesity?

Publications

You can view my published research at PubMed or Google Scholar. If you are outside of an academic institution and want to access a particular paper, please contact me directly.

Mentoring and service

My research is enhanced by my effort devoted to teaching and mentoring trainees and junior faculty. I offer career development workshops for early career researchers. Moreover, I engage in career development activities nationally and locally to improve the recruitment and retention of academic scholars from a variety of backgrounds.

I welcome inquiries from prospective trainees with specific research interests in the area of pediatric decision science. Unfortunately, I do not work with unpaid interns. Unpaid positions create an unfair advantage for those who can afford to work for free, limiting opportunities for individuals from less privileged backgrounds. [source]

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