Dr. Halpern is Associate Professor (with Tenure) of Medicine, Epidemiology, and Medical Ethics and Health Policy at the Perelman School of Medicine of the University of Pennsylvania. The FIELDS program, which Dr. Halpern founded in 2012, includes scholars from multiple health-related disciplines who are united by the belief that untoward influences on how patients, family members, and providers make choices contribute to the high intensity of care that many patients receive near the ends of their lives. The Center for Health Incentives and Behavioral Economics (CHIBE) is 1 of 2 NIH-funded centers on Behavioral Economics and Health. CHIBE develops interventions that reduce the unhealthy behaviors (e.g., smoking, overeating, and medication non-adherence) that account for the majority of preventable morbidity and mortality in the developed world.
Dr. Halpern’s research is currently supported by the National Institutes of Health, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Greenwall Foundation, and the American Heart Association. He has received the United States’ most prestigious awards for young academics in two different disciplines: the Greenwall Foundation Faculty Scholar Award (2008) in bioethics, and AcademyHealth’s Alice S. Hersh New Investigator Award (2011) in health services research. In 2012, Dr. Halpern was 1 of 10 people to receive the Young Leader Award as part of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s 40th Anniversary, recognizing people aged 40 or under who offer “great promise for leading the way to improved health and health care for all Americans.” He is an Anniversary Fellow at the Institute of Medicine, an elected member of the American Society of Clinical Investigation, and a member of the Editorial Boards of the Annals of Internal Medicine and the American Journal of Bioethics. Dr. Halpern has authored more than 100 peer-reviewed articles, and roughly 50 editorials, reviews, and chapters. He has consulted on ethical and scientific matters for the NIH, CDC, UNOS, The World Bank, and two Advisory Committees to the U.S. Secretary for Health and Human Services.