Dr. Delgado is an Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine and Epidemiology at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania (Penn), the director of the Penn Medicine Nudge Unit, and a practicing trauma center emergency physician. He also leads the Behavioral Science and Analytics For Injury Reduction (BeSAFIR) lab, which applies data science and behavioral economics for preventing injuries and for improving acute care.
M. Kit Delgado, MD, MS, is an Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine and Epidemiology at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania (Penn), director of the Penn Medicine Nudge Unit, a practicing trauma center emergency physician, and an Associate Fellow at the Center for Injury Research and Prevention at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
He also leads the Behavioral Science and Analytics For Injury Reduction (BeSAFIR) lab, which applies data science and behavioral economics for preventing injuries and for improving acute care. BeSAFIR has three complementary lines of research:
- Analysis of large health system, state, and national datasets of emergency department encounters to elucidate opportunities to improve emergency and trauma care and to prevent injuries.
- Development and testing of health system interventions for promoting opioid stewardship for acute pain management and for facilitating the treatment of patients with opioid use disorder in the emergency department. Dr. Delgado currently leads the Acute Pain Workgroup of the University of Pennsylvania Health System Opioid Task Force.
- Development and testing of interventions for preventing motor vehicle crashes from distracted and alcohol-impaired driving by leveraging smartphone technology and insights from behavioral economics. This work includes partnerships with large US auto insurers.
Dr. Delgado's work is funded by the National Institutes of Health, the Food and Drug Administration, the U.S. Department of Transportation, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
He is a Senior Scholar in the Center Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics (CCEB), a Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics (LDI) Senior Fellow, and a faculty member in the Center for Emergency Care Policy and Research (CECPR), the Center for Health Incentives and Behavioral Economics (CHIBE), and the Penn Injury Science Center (PISC).
He has previously served as a member of the NASEM Committee on Accelerating Progress to Reduce Alcohol-Impaired Driving Fatalities and the Committee on Evidence-based Clinical Practice Guidelines for Prescribing Opioids for Acute Pain.
BA, Princeton University (Public/International Affairs), 2001
MD, Columbia University, 2006
MS, Stanford University School of Medicine (Health Services Research), 2012
Assistant Professor, Emergency Medicine and Epidemiology, Perelman School of Medicine
Director, Behavioral Science and Analytics For Injury Prevention (BeSAFIR)
Acute Prescribing Lead, UPHS Opioid Task Force
Attending Physician, UPHS, CHOP
Associate Fellow, Center for Injury Research and Prevention
Society for Academic Emergency Medicine
American Board of Emergency Medicine
Academy Health
Society for Medical Decision Making
National Association of EMS Physicians
American College of Emergency Physicians
Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network
Society for Advancement of Violence and Injury Research
UPHS Opioid Task Force
National Academies of the Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
Gale F. Johnston Prize in Public Affairs, Commencement Award, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University, 2001
Best Research Award and Best Research Presentation Award, American College of Emergency Physicians, California Chapter, Research Forum, Palm Springs, CA, 2009
Lee B. Lusted Prize for Outstanding Research, Society for Medical Decision Making, 2010
Award for Best Research Presentation by a Fellow, National Association of EMS Physicians, 2011
Award for Best Fellow Science, Society for Academic Emergency Medicine, Western Regional, 2011
Student Poster Award: Runner Up, Academy Health, Annual Research Meeting, 2011
Semifinalist: Society for Academic Emergency Medicine, 2012
Editor’s Choice Article, Annals of Emergency Medicine, 2013
Top New Reviewer, Annals of Emergency Medicine, 2015
Top Reviewer, Academic Emergency Medicine, 2015
Plenary Abstract Presentation, Society for Academic Emergency Medicine Annual Meeting, 2017
McDonald CC, Delgado MK, Zonfrillo MR. Opportunities to Reduce Distracted Driving and Adolescent Driver Motor Vehicle Crashes. Pediatrics 145(6), Jun 2020.
Kilaru AS, Xiong A, Lowenstein M, Meisel ZF, Perrone J, Khatri U, Mitra N, Delgado MK. Incidence of Treatment for Opioid Use Disorder Following Nonfatal Overdose in Commercially Insured Patients. JAMA Network Open 3(5), May 2020 2020.
Coupet JR, Huang E, Delgado MK. US Emergency Department Encounters for Firearm Injuries According to Presentation at Trauma vs Nontrauma Centers. JAMA Surgery. January 2019.
McDonald CC, Ward K, Huang Y, Wiebe DJ, Delgado MK. Novel Smartphone-Based Measures of Cell Phone Use While Driving in a Sample of Newly Licensed Adolescent Drivers. Health Education Behavior. 46(1):10-14, July 2018.
Delgado MK, McDonald CC, Winston FK, Halpern DC, Buttenheim AM, Setubal C, Huang Y, Saulsgiver KA, Lee YC. Attitudes on Technological, Social, and Behavioral Economic Strategies to Reduce Cellphone Use While Driving in Teens. Traffic Injury Prevention 19(6): 569-76, April 2018.