David A. Asch is an American physician-scientist. He is the Senior Vice President of the University of Pennsylvania where he is the John Morgan Professor of Medicine at the Perelman School of Medicine and Professor of Operations, Information, and Decisions and Professor of Health Care Management at the Wharton School.

David A Asch
Born
New York, USA
Known forHealth Policy Research, Behavioral Economics, Health Equity, Medical Education
RelativesSidney H. Asch (uncle)
AwardsOutstanding Investigator Award from the American Federation of Medical Research (2009) Alice Hersh Award from AcademyHealth (2005)
Academic background
EducationAB, Harvard University
MD, Weill Cornell Medical College
MBA, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania

Early life and education edit

Asch grew up in New York City and attended the Dalton School. He received his A.B. in philosophy from Harvard College and his M.D. from Weill Cornell Medical College. He completed his residency in internal medicine at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and was then a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholar at the University of Pennsylvania during which time he received an M.B.A. in health care management and in decision sciences from the Wharton School.

Career edit

University of Pennsylvania edit

Asch is a professor at the Perelman School of Medicine and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and has also served in various administrative roles, including Executive Director of the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics (1998-2012), Direct of the Robert Wood Johnson Health & Society Scholars Program (2002-2014), Executive Director of the Center for Health Care Innovation (2012-2022), Director of the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program (2013-2017). In 2022 he was named Senior Vice Dean at the Perelman School of Medicine and in 2024 he became Senior Vice President for Strategic Initiatives at the University of Pennsylvania. Asch led the creation of the National Clinician Scholars Program and served as its first Executive Director, coordinating the programs at UCLA, the University of Michigan, the University of Pennsylvania, and Yale. The program has since expanded to include Duke and the University of California, San Francisco.

Department of Veterans Affairs edit

Asch was a staff physician at the Cpl Michael J Crecenz VA Medical Center from 1989 to 2020 during which time he developed its Health Services Research & Development program including the Center for Health Equity Research and Promotion, the VA’s national research center aimed at reducing disparities in health and health care. At other times he served as Chief of General Internal Medicine and Acting Chief of Staff. He received the VA Undersecretary’s Award in 2008 for his contributions to VA Health Services Research.

Research edit

Asch's research focuses on health services research, and he is particularly well known for his work in behavioral economics, biomedical ethics, graduate medical education, and health equity. His work in behavioral economics has been presented in a popular TED MED talk from 2018.

Awards and honors edit

References edit