Davene R. Wright, PhD

I study how people make hard health care decisions — patients deciding whether to start or stop a medication, parents weighing their child's future health against today's costs and constraints, health plans deciding what to cover and for whom, policymakers deciding what programs to support. My job is to figure out what's actually driving those decisions, then design the studies and collaborations that can improve them.

I identify the right questions, and build and lead the teams that answer them. Most of my work lives at the intersection of obesity and diabetes — including how people decide whether to start or stop GLP-1 medications, and, for people managing diabetes, how they choose a health plan in the first place.

I am an Associate Professor in the Department of Population Medicine at the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute and Harvard Medical School. Full bio and academic affiliations → 

Sample research questions I seek to answer

• How do people decide whether to start — or stop — a medication like a GLP-1, and what would help them make a decision that aligns with their goals, values, and resources?

• Can we help people with chronic conditions  choose a health care plan that will improve their health and  prevent financial toxicity?

• How do clinicians, parents, and adolescents make health care decisions together?

• What's the business case for health plans and employers to invest in preventing costly chronic disease and adverse events before they happen?

• How do we make sure effective but expensive new treatments actually reach the patients who need them?

• What are the most efficient policy levers for reducing childhood obesity? For improving diabetes care?

• What can listening to real-world clinic conversations tell us about medical decision making that a medical chart cannot? 

Publications

A selection of my research is on my About page, along with my full publication record.