Lunch&Learn: Understanding Health Behaviors using Natural Experiments
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Why do people make the health decisions they do? How can we better understand and influence behaviors in health care? This session will explore how natural experiments—real-world scenarios where policies, incentives, or circumstances change unexpectedly—help researchers uncover insights into health behaviors. Using tools from behavioral science, economics, and machine learning, we’ll discuss how factors like cognitive biases, financial incentives, and AI-driven interventions shape decisions in primary and emergency care. Learn how these findings can inform better policies and improve patient outcomes.
Itinerary
12:00pm - 12:05pm | Welcome and introductions
12:05pm - 12:45pm | Lunch&Learn presentation
12:45pm - 12:55pm | Moderated Q&A session
12:55pm - 13:00pm | Closing and upcoming sessions
Location
This is an online webinar hosted on Zoom. To receive details to enter the event, please register.
Featured Speaker
Claire Boone, PhD
Assistant Professor, Economics and Equity, Ethics and Policy, McGill University
Claire Boone is an assistant professor at McGill University in the Department of Economics and the Department of Equity, Ethics and Policy. She is a health economist who studies health and health care decisions using quasi-experimental methods, machine learning, and behavioral science. Her current research examines how behavioral biases affect decisions in primary health care, how we can use AI to improve decisions in emergency departments, and the consequences of value-based payment models. Before joining McGill in fall 2024 she completed a PhD at the University of California Berkeley, a post-doc at the University of Chicago, and worked as a clinical research scientist at the Providence health system.
Suggested Readings
1. Khullar D, Jena AB. “Natural Experiments” in Health Care Research. JAMA Health Forum. 2021;2(6):e210290. doi:10.1001/jamahealthforum.2021.0290
2. Tadeja Gracner et al,. "Exposure to sugar rationing in the first 1000 days of life protected against chronic disease."Science"386,1043-1048(2024).DOI:10.1126/science.adn5421
3. "Being Sugar-Deprived Had Major Effects on These Children's Health", NewYorkTimes, https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/31/health/sugar-rationing-britain-health...
What are Lunch&Learn's?
The CAnD3 Lunch&Learn series is designed to introduce our Fellows, team members, and partners to emerging research on topics related to population dynamics and population aging. These modules will cover the Four CAnD3 Population Aging Axes: (1) family and social inclusion; (2) education, labour and inequality; (3) migration and ethnicity; and (4) wellbeing and autonomy.
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