Consumerology Advisory Board - Express-Scripts.com

Research & Consumerology

Consumerology Advisory Board

Several years ago, Express Scripts founded the Consumerology® Advisory Board to advance our understanding of human behavior and help translate this understanding into new products and services. Output from the Board is put into practice to help plan sponsors drive to a more cost-effective pharmacy benefit.

The Advisory Board helps us continue to evolve our Consumerology efforts:
  • Providing insight that helps guide our research
  • Tracking emerging findings from the behavioral sciences
  • Developing and deploying pilots to test related hypotheses
  • Analyzing the results of pilots
  • Helping incorporate successful theories into business practice
The Advisory Board includes leaders across a variety of behavioral science disciplines:
Emeritus Advisors
  • Dan Ariely, PhD, Behavioral Economics, Duke University
  • Alan Garber, MD, PhD, Provost, Harvard University
  • Emily Oster, PhD, Economics, University of Chicago Booth School of Business

Biographies

Ian Ayres, JD, PhD — Law and econometrics, Yale University

Ian Ayres is a lawyer and economist, as well as a William K. Townsend Professor of Law and a professor at the Yale School of Management. In addition to serving as the editor of the Journal of Law, Economics, & Organization, he is also a regular commentator on National Public Radio's "Marketplace," a columnist for Forbes and writes for The New York Times Freakonomics Blog. Ian also co-founded stickk.com, a website that empowers you to better your lifestyle with the opportunity, through "Commitment Contracts," to show to yourself and others the value you put on achieving your goals. His research has been featured on "Primetime Live," "The Oprah Winfrey Show" and "Good Morning America," as well as reported in Time and Vogue. He has been ranked as one of the most prolific and most-cited law professors of his generation. In 2006, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.

Ayres has published nine books, including the bestseller Super Crunchers, which illustrates a new way of thinking by the numbers that can lead to greater insights into human behavior and greater accuracy in predicting the future.

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Colin Camerer, PhD — Behavioral economics, Cal Tech

Colin F. Camerer is an American behavioral economist and a professor at the California Institute of Technology. A former child prodigy, Camerer received a BA in quantitative studies from Johns Hopkins University in 1977, followed by an MBA in finance from the University of Chicago in 1979 and a PhD in behavioral decision theory from that same institution in 1981. He worked at Kellogg, Wharton and the University of Chicago business schools before moving to Cal Tech in 1994.

His research looks at the interface between cognitive psychology and economics for a better understanding of the psychological and neurobiological basis of decision making. He uses these findings to determine the validity of models of economic behavior. This work has led to what Camerer calls the "cognitive hierarchy theory." This theory can be used by people and businesses to more accurately forecast what others are likely to do in various situations. In turn, they can use these forecasts to help people make better choices.

According to Camerer, a key part of strategizing about what other people, corporations, or countries will do involves thinking about what they think you will do. "You can also think about what others think you think... It can go on and on." In addition, Camerer is the author of Behavioral Game Theory. Published in 2003, this book uses psychological principles and hundreds of experiments to develop mathematical theories that help predict what real people and companies will do in strategic situations.

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Arthur Caplan, PhD — Bioethics, University of Pennsylvania

Arthur Caplan is the Emanuel and Robert Hart Professor of Bioethics, chair of the Department of Medical Ethics and the director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. He was the first president of the American Association of Bioethics and is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, The Hastings Center, The College of Physicians of Philadelphia and The New York Academy of Medicine.

Caplan is the author or editor of 25 books and more than 500 papers in refereed journals of medicine, science, philosophy, bioethics and health policy.

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Helen Darling — President, National Business Group on Health

Helen Darling is president of the National Business Group on Health (formerly the Washington Business Group on Health), a national non-profit membership organization devoted exclusively to providing practical solutions to its employer-members' most important healthcare problems and representing large employers' perspectives on national health policy issues. Its 280-plus members, including 60 of the Fortune 100 in 2009, purchase health and disability benefits for more than 50 million employees, retirees and dependents.

Darling heads the Business Group's Institute on Health Care Costs and Solutions, which seeks practical solutions to the nation's growing concern about rapidly rising costs and affordability of care, as well as continuing problems of patient safety and quality. She serves on the Committee on Performance Measurement of the National Committee for Quality Assurance; the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association's Medical Advisory Panel of the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association; the Roundtable on Evidence-Based Medicine of the Institute of Medicine; and the board of directors of the National Quality Forum.

Helen's exploration into new and practical solutions to the nation's rising healthcare costs helps support Consumerology and Express Scripts goal to minimize wasted time and money from the healthcare system, resulting in better health outcomes and cost savings.

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Noah Goldstein, PhD — Social psychology, UCLA

Noah J. Goldstein is Assistant Professor of Human Resources and Organizational Behavior at the UCLA Anderson School of Management. Prior to UCLA, Goldstein served on the faculty of The University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

In addition to teaching, he has consulted for a number of private and public institutions, including Accenture, the United States Forest Service and the United States Census Bureau. Dr. Goldstein's primary line of research involves the study of factors that lead people to change not only their attitudes and opinions, but also their behaviors.

His scholarly research and writing on the topics of persuasion, conformity and compliance have been published in many of the premier scholarly outlets in psychology and business, including Harvard Business Review, MIT Sloan Management Review and the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. His research has been featured in numerous media outlets, including The New York Times, NPR's Marketplace and the Harvard Business Review 2009 List of Breakthrough Ideas.

In addition, Dr. Goldstein is co-author with Robert Cialdini of the New York Times best seller Yes!: 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive. The book is devoted to the psychology of persuasion and to prescribing persuasion strategies that are both ethical and scientifically proven to be effective. It has been translated into over 25 languages. The strategies discussed in this book can easily be applied by almost anyone in almost any field, including sales, marketing, negotiation, management, patient care, policy and parenting.

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Brian Knutson, PhD — Psychology, Stanford University

Brian Knutson is an associate professor of psychology and neuroscience at Stanford University and an affiliate of Stanford University's Center for Health Policy and Center for Primary Care and Outcomes Research. His interdisciplinary research focuses on the neural basis of emotional experience and expression. Beyond understanding the physiological mechanisms responsible for emotional experience, his laboratory seeks to explore implications for economic behavior, as well as the assessment and treatment of affective and addictive disorders.

Knutson has received Young Investigator Awards from the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression, the Association for Behavioral Medicine Research, the American Psychiatric Association and the New York Academy of Science. He received bachelor's degrees in experimental psychology and comparative religion from Trinity University, as well as a doctorate in experimental psychology from Stanford. He has conducted postdoctoral research in affective neuroscience at the University of California, San Francisco and at the National Institutes of Health. His research has received media coverage in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Time and the Economist.

Brian's research in understanding the emotional experience and its implications for economic behavior has helped shape Express Scripts Consumerology work in helping plan members make better choices that then lead to cost savings and better health outcomes.

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David Laibson, PhD — Behavioral economics, Harvard University

David Laibson is a Harvard College Professor and the Robert I. Goldman Professor of Economics at Harvard University. Laibson is also a member of the National Bureau of Economic Research, where he is Research Associate in the Asset Pricing, Economic Fluctuations and Aging Working Groups. Laibson serves on numerous editorial boards, as well as the boards of the Health and Retirement Survey and the Pension Research Council. He is a recipient of a Marshall Scholarship and grants from the National Science Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation, the National Institute on Aging, the Sloan Foundation, the Social Security Administration and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). Laibson co-organizes the Russell Sage Foundation's Summer School in Behavioral Economics. He has received the PBK Prize for Excellence in Teaching.

Laibson's research focuses on the topic of psychology and economics and his work is frequently discussed in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times, the Economist, Business Week, Forbes, Fortune, Money, Wired Magazine, Pensions and Investments, the New Yorker, the PBS program Wealthtrack and the Bloomberg television network. In 2005, Fortune named Laibson one of 10 people to watch. In 2008 Wired Magazine included Laibson on the "2008 Smart List: 15 People the Next President should listen to."

In 2006 Laibson served as an external reviewer for the Department of Labor regulations that implement the Pension Protection Act. In 2009 Laibson was appointed to the Harvard University Pension Investment Committee. Laibson holds degrees from Harvard University (BA in Economics, summa cum laude), the London School of Economics (MSc in Econometrics and Mathematical Economics) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Phd in Economics).

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Bob Nease, PhD — Chief scientist, Express Scripts, Inc.

Bob Nease joined Express Scripts in 2001, bringing with him a wealth of experience in medical decision making and scientific research. Dr. Nease received his doctorate from Stanford University, where he studied methods of improving doctors' and patients' medical decisions. Before joining Express Scripts, he was an associate professor of internal medicine at Washington University in St. Louis and an assistant professor at the Dartmouth Medical School. He retains adjunct appointments at the Washington University School of Medicine and the School of Public Health at St. Louis University.

In 2009, Bob was honored with a URAC Health Care Stars! Award in the category of Consumer Empowerment for pioneering Express Scripts Consumerology the application of the behavioral sciences to healthcare. In addition, he leads the Consumerology Advisory Board and is a reviewer for a number of journals, including the Journal of the American Medical Association, the Annals of Internal Medicine, the Journal of General Internal Medicine, Quality of Life Research and Medical Decision Making. He is also a past president of the Society for Medical Decision Making and has served as a study section member of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

As a leader in the convergence of consumer behavior and healthcare, Bob is responsible for advancing Express Scripts' behavior-centric approach to the pharmacy benefit. To this end, he closely follows emerging science around human behavior and decision making and then works to develop tools and communications that help plan sponsors enable better health and value.

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Mark Turner, PhD — Cognitive linguistics, Case Western Reserve University

Mark Turner is Institute Professor and chair of cognitive science at Case Western Reserve University. His most recent book is the edited volume The Artful Mind: Cognitive Science and the Riddle of Human Creativity. His other books and articles include Cognitive Dimensions of Social Science: The Way We Think about Politics, Economics, Law and Society; The Literary Mind: The Origins of Thought and Language; Reading Minds: The Study of English in the Age of Cognitive Science; and Death is the Mother of Beauty.

He has been a fellow of the Institute for Advanced Study, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, the National Humanities Center and the National Endowment for the Humanities. He is external research professor at the Krasnow Institute for Advanced Study in Cognitive Neuroscience at George Mason University and a distinguished fellow at the New England Institute for Cognitive Science and Evolutionary Psychology.

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Paul Zak, PhD — Neuroeconomics, Claremont Graduate University

Paul Zak is professor of economics and the founding director of the Center for Neuroeconomics Studies at Claremont Graduate University. Zak also serves as professor of neurology at Loma Linda University Medical Center and is a senior researcher at the University of California, Los Angeles.

He has bachelor's degrees in mathematics and economics from San Diego State University, a doctorate in economics from the University of Pennsylvania and postdoctoral training in neuroimaging from Harvard University. His most recent book, Moral Markets: the Critical Role of Values in the Economy was published in 2008.

Zak is credited with the first published use of the term "neuroeconomics" and has been at the vanguard in this new discipline that integrates neuroscience and economics. He organized and administers the world's first doctoral program in neuroeconomics at Claremont Graduate University. In 2004, Zak's lab discovered that an ancient chemical in our brains, oxytocin, helps us determine whom to trust. This knowledge is being used to understand the basis for modern civilizations and modern economies, improve negotiations and treat patients with neurological and psychiatric disorders.

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