Using insights from behavioral economics and related disciplines, Dr. Buttenheim designs and trials interventions to change behaviors that are central to infectious disease prevention. Her work spans Chagas disease prevention campaigns in Peru and HIV testing and treatment efforts in South Africa to vaccine acceptance and COVID-19 mitigation strategies in the US.
Health behaviors are stronger predictors of health outcomes than genetics, environmental factors, or even access to medical care. Through her research, teaching, and community-based practice, Dr. Buttenheim is keenly interested in identifying and dismantling mechanisms that produce social disparities in unhealthy behaviors. In the US, she has studied how to implement incentives-based smoking cessation programs for pregnant Medicaid members, who currently don’t have widespread access to these evidence-based strategies. In her work on the National Academic of Science, Engineering and Medicine’s Committee on the Equitable Allocation of COVID-19 vaccine, Dr. Buttenheim joined others in calling for preferential allocation of limited vaccine supply to communities hardest hit by the virus. Dr. Buttenheim was one of the founding members of Bold Solutions, an initiative to dismantle racism and advance Black health. Along with Amy Summer and Dr. Chris Chesley, she chairs the joint CHIBE/PAIR Committee on Anti-Racism and Social Change.
Dr. Buttenheim designed and teaches Behavioral Economics and Health (NURS 613), a course that draws students from over a dozen different graduate programs across seven of Penn’s schools. Dr. Buttenheim has also taught Impact Evaluation of Global Health Programs (PUBH 554), Introduction to Principles and Methods of Epidemiology (N500), and Nursing in the Community (N380). She is a regular guest lecture in courses on global health, population health, behavioral science, intervention design, and implementation science.
Dr. Buttenheim’s research is focused on the application of behavioral insights to infectious disease prevention, and to the implementation of evidence-based practices in multiple domains. She has been continuously NIH-funded as PI or MPI since 2013 for projects on Chagas disease prevention, vaccine exemptions, dental behavior change, and mental health services delivery. With a particular interest in behaviorally-informed intervention design, Dr. Buttenheim has published multiple papers demonstrating the potential for behavioral insights and behavioral design to yield high-impact intervention designs.
Dr. Buttenheim is connected with multiple centers and programs across Penn’s campus that offer opportunities for interdisciplinary engagement and training. She is the Scientific Director of the Center for Health Incentives and Behavioral Economics (CHIBE) and encourages interested students to participate in CHIBE’s offerings. She is a core faculty member in Penn’s Master of Public Health program, a research associate at the Population Studies Center, and a faculty affiliate of the Master of Behavioral and Decision Sciences program in the School of Arts and Sciences. She is Director of Engagement for Penn’s Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics and Associate Director of Penn’s National Clinician Scholars Program. With Dr. Harsha Thirumurthy, Dr. Buttenheim leads Indlela, an HIV-focused “Nudge Unit” in South Africa, supported by funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.