Bio: Berit Bringedal, Ph.D., a 2010-11 Harkness Fellow in Health Care Policy and Practice, is senior researcher at the research institute of the Norwegian Medical Association. She is also part-time lecturer at Oslo University College and board member of the Western Norway Research Institute (Vestlandforsking). Bringedal's research interests include priority setting and distributive justice as well as medical professionals' health, behavior, and attitudes in health care. Previous positions include associate professor at the Institute of Health Economics and Management, University of Oslo, secretary for the Norwegian governmental committee for priority setting in health care, and visiting scholar at the University of California, Berkeley. Bringedal is author of 12 articles in peer-reviewed journals, including in Quality and Safety in Health Care. She holds a M.A. in sociology from the University of Oslo and a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Bergen.
Placement: Harvard University
Mentors: James Sabin, Professor and Director, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Ethics Program, Harvard Medical School; Norman Daniels, Mary B. Saltonstall Professor of Population Ethics, Harvard School of Public Health
Project: Should Personal Responsibility for Health Influence Access to Health Care? The Use of Wellness Incentives in U.S. Workplaces
Description: Bringedal explored the question of whether and how personal responsibility should count in priority-setting in health care, particularly related to access. The project included a literature review on how personal responsibility is being promoted in U.S. health care, and interviews with decision-makers (employers, benefit design consultants, and physicians) about their views on personal responsibility. The interviews included vignettes to study how informed respondents choose to weigh different priority criteria regarding resource allocation in an experimental situation.