They can also work with demand, examining why people are obese or what happens to individual behavior when we tax cigarettes. Recent research projects funded by students at the Leonard Davis Institute for Health Economics at the University of Pennsylvania include “How Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs Reduce Prescription Opioids,” “Affordability and Health Outcomes,” and “Analyzing Medication Use by Undocumented Patients.” “LDI students study everything from health insurance and medical decision-making to access, equity and innovation in health care. “A lot of people interested in health care want to have an impact on people’s well-being,” says David, who admits that he might have chosen to be a doctor early in his career had he not passed out in sight of blood. So we enlisted the help of Professor David, a health management specialist who also developed a course on health economics for our new Wharton pre-baccalaureath program for high school students. These include: the people and institutions that provide health care, such as nurses, doctors, hospitals and nursing homes; insurance companies, such as Medicare and Medicaid, and for-profit companies; manufacturers, such as equipment manufacturers and pharmaceutical companies; and regulators, such as the government, that oversee health care operations. What about patients who underwent knee replacement surgery days before closing, and those who suddenly had to wait for their prosthesis when people were desperate to get out of the house? How did the treatment, or lack thereof, affect people’s health? “The pandemic created this natural experience where some people were lucky and got surgery, while others just weren’t lucky and just couldn’t get surgery. As a professor of medical ethics and health policy at the Perelman School of Medicine, “while he” finds it encouraging to see more doctors early in their careers, he also wants the next generation of doctors to look beyond the stethoscope as they consider their influential role in public health. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and frontline physicians and other health professionals during the OVID-19 pandemic. Guy David, Gilbert and Shelley Harrison, professor of health care management at Wharton University, followed these numbers with interest. Health economics applies economic concepts to the health care sector because it often addresses the most pressing problems in the health care system. The economic concept that resources are scarce in terms of their utility is fundamental to understanding the field of health economics. What is the right balance? Health economists try to figure it out, with all the forces affecting health care helping policymakers. While he speaks enthusiastically of many aspiring doctors, nurses and front-line workers, David wants future health care professionals to understand that many industry leaders are not those who wear dresses. “Health economics combines the concepts of allocating scarce resources to meet people’s needs with the complex details that tie together this ecosystem of providers, payers, manufacturers and regulators,” David says. “You can find processes, innovations and ideas that make health care more affordable, better, more transparent, cheaper and more accessible. If you’re like most high school students, you don’t even know what health care economics is.