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Behavioral science in healthcare starts with a simple observation: most outcomes depend on what patients and clinicians do between encounters. We help health systems read those behavioral signals, design better care experiences and measure what actually moves health.
The people side of healthcare & health systems.
Health systems are built around encounters, yet most of health happens between them. A patient leaves a cardiology visit with a new prescription, a referral to cardiac rehabilitation and a follow-up date. Whether any of it happens depends on motivation, ability and a well-timed prompt, not on the quality of the visit alone. Adherence gaps, missed referrals and readmissions are behavioral problems that show up in clinical and financial data long before anyone names them as behavior. Behavioral science in healthcare gives leaders a way to see those patterns and act on them.
Inside the organization, the people problems are just as real. Clinicians carry heavy documentation loads, fragmented workflows and constant interruption, and burnout erodes the empathy and attention that patient experience depends on. Service line leaders are asked to improve access, quality scores and margin at once, often with data spread across the electronic health record, scheduling, call centers, patient portals and survey vendors that were never designed to speak to one another. Decisions get made on assumptions because the integrated picture does not exist.
Current forces raise the stakes. Value-based contracts reward prevention and adherence rather than volume. Patients compare their care experience with the convenience of consumer services. Digital front doors, remote monitoring and AI documentation tools promise relief but succeed only when people actually adopt them. Cardiac risk reduction, diabetes management and other chronic conditions require months of sustained self-management. Each of these shifts turns patient and clinician behavior into a strategic variable that health systems need to measure, predict and design for.
What leaders are up against.
Adherence that fades after discharge
Patients often leave with clear instructions and good intentions, then stop medications, skip cardiac rehabilitation or miss follow-up visits within weeks. The causes are rarely a lack of information. They include cost, side effects, competing demands and the absence of a timely prompt. Without behavioral data, care teams see the lapse only after it becomes a readmission.
Patient experience measured too late
Experience surveys arrive weeks after the encounter and describe how people felt, not what they did. Leaders struggle to link survey scores to behaviors that matter, such as portal use, appointment keeping and willingness to return. The result is improvement work aimed at the score rather than at the moments that shape trust and loyalty.
Clinician burnout and workflow friction
Burnout is often framed as an individual resilience problem when much of it is designed into workflows, inbox volume and handoffs. Clinicians who feel overloaded have less capacity for the conversations that drive adherence and satisfaction. Programs that focus only on wellness offerings, without changing the work itself, tend to disappoint both clinicians and leaders.
Data spread across disconnected systems
Clinical records, scheduling, contact centers, portals, pharmacy and survey platforms each hold a fragment of the patient journey. Few health systems have integrated them around the behaviors that predict outcomes. Analysts fill the gaps with assumptions, and leaders end up debating anecdotes instead of testing which moments in the journey actually change health and cost.
Digital tools that patients and staff do not adopt
Health systems invest in portals, remote monitoring, scheduling apps and AI documentation tools that see uneven use. Adoption stalls when tools add steps, arrive at the wrong moment or ask for trust that has not been earned. Treating adoption as a behavioral design problem, rather than a rollout task, changes what success looks like.
Where we focus.
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Adherence and risk reduction design
We map the post-visit journey for a target population, such as patients recovering from a cardiac event, and identify the moments where adherence breaks down. We then design prompts, simplified routines and care team scripts grounded in health behavior models, and test them in pilots that measure filled prescriptions, rehabilitation attendance and follow-up completion.
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Predictive patient experience KPIs
Using Behavioral Signals Design, we connect survey, scheduling, portal and contact center data to find the behaviors that precede loyalty or attrition. We replace lagging satisfaction scores with predictive, behavior-based KPIs that service line leaders can act on weekly, and we build dashboards that show where to intervene before experience problems reach the survey.
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Clinician wellbeing grounded in the work
We study clinician workflows through observation and interviews, identify the friction points that drain time and attention, and co-design changes with the people who do the work. Paired with leadership and team coaching, this approach treats burnout as a systems problem and measures progress through behavior, retention signals and validated wellbeing instruments.
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Patient journey and service design
We map the full patient journey across access, visit, discharge and follow-up, including the hidden handoffs between departments. Service design then addresses the moments that cause confusion or drop-off, from referral scheduling to discharge instructions, so that the experience patients have matches the care the organization intends to deliver.
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Evidence-based health communication
Many patient messages are accurate but hard to act on. We rewrite and test outreach, discharge materials and portal messages using behavioral science and plain-language principles, then measure response through controlled comparisons. The goal is communication that respects patient autonomy and makes the next healthy step easier to take.
The social good at stake.
Health systems exist to help people live longer, healthier lives, and much of that mission depends on behavior outside the clinic walls. Behavioral science advances it by making the healthy choice easier, better timed and more personally meaningful, especially for patients managing cardiac risk or chronic conditions. It also protects the people who provide care by redesigning the work that drives burnout. Done ethically, this approach supports patient autonomy rather than overriding it, and it directs scarce clinical attention to the moments where it can do the most good for patients and communities.
Frequently asked questions.
How is behavioral science in healthcare different from traditional patient engagement?
Traditional engagement programs often focus on delivering information or reminders. Behavioral science in healthcare starts by asking what specific behavior needs to happen, then examines motivation, ability and prompts for that behavior in a real patient population. Interventions are designed for the moments that matter and tested against measurable outcomes, so health systems learn what works rather than assuming that more outreach produces better adherence.
Can you work with our existing EHR and analytics data?
Yes. Most engagements begin with the data a health system already has, including clinical, scheduling, portal, contact center and survey sources. We identify the behavioral signals within those systems, note where gaps are being filled by assumptions and recommend practical ways to connect sources. We work alongside internal analytics and IT teams and do not require a new platform to begin.
Do you address clinician burnout as well as patient behavior?
Yes. Clinician wellbeing and patient outcomes are closely linked, so we treat both as part of the same system. Our work on burnout combines workflow research, co-design with clinicians and leadership coaching. We focus on changing the conditions of the work, such as handoffs and inbox design, rather than relying solely on individual resilience programs.
Relevant services.
Patient Engagement & Medication Adherence
Behavioral science for patient engagement and medication adherence, from diagnosing adherence barriers to designing and testing interventions with real patients.
ExploreClinician Wellbeing & Burnout Reduction
Burnout reduction for physicians, nurses and care teams that targets systemic drivers in workload, workflow and leadership, not just individual resilience.
ExplorePatient & Member Experience
Research, journey mapping and service design that improve patient and member experience at the moments that most influence trust, engagement and loyalty.
ExploreHealth Behavior Change Design
Evidence-based health behavior change design for programs, products and services that help people start and sustain healthier routines.
ExplorePredictive KPI Design
Replace lagging and vanity metrics with behavior-based leading indicators that forecast results and give teams something they can actually influence.
ExploreEvidence-Based Health Communication
Health communication grounded in behavioral science and health literacy, with messages tested on real audiences before they reach patients and the public.
ExploreFurther reading.
Behavioral Design for Medication Adherence
Why medication adherence is a behavioral challenge, and how behavioral design, patient research and careful testing can help people take medicines as they intend.
Read
The Fogg Behavior Model, Explained
A clear explanation of the Fogg Behavior Model, B=MAP, and how motivation, ability and prompts combine to explain why people act or fail to act.
ReadLet’s talk about the people problem in front of you.
Every engagement begins with a conversation. Tell us what you are facing and we will tell you, candidly, how we would approach it.
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