TY - JOUR T1 - A future of digital leadership that is behavioural by design JF - Future Healthcare Journal JO - Future Healthc J SP - 194 LP - 195 DO - 10.7861/fhj.dig-2020-beha VL - 7 IS - 3 AU - Rayna Patel Y1 - 2020/10/01 UR - http://www.rcpjournals.org/content/7/3/194.abstract N2 - KEYWORDSStarting out as an undergraduate in medicine, I had little expectation that the next 15 years would lead me not only through clinical medicine but through policy and health technology, and to my current position as chief executive officer (CEO) of a company applying behavioural science to healthcare. In retrospect, this path is very firmly rooted in the inclusion of an MA in Psychology within my medical undergraduate degree. This experience of experimental psychology was the ignition of an enduring fascination with cognition, decision making and behavioural science, which is the common thread through the various phases of my career.Behavioural science is a branch of psychology that recognises the difference between what we want to do and what we actually do.1,2 In practice, this often involves the blending of economics and psychology (which is why Daniel Kahneman, a psychologist, won the Nobel prize for economics in 2002).Classical economic models often start with the assumption that human beings operate to maximise self-interest; that, as humans, we make rational decisions in line with our values, beliefs and long-term goals.Psychologists have helped to show that human beings have, crudely, two different ways of taking decisions: an ‘automatic’ system that enables us to rapidly and intuitively respond to stimuli, and a reflective, deliberative system.3As we increasingly understand, through behavioural science research, that our decisions are largely made automatically (and often therefore irrationally), this reshapes the optimal model for behavioural change, from changing the beliefs or values of individuals to changing the structure of the decision-making process or environment (for example, in changing a default setting).Although the application of behavioural science can seem like common sense, it's often not accommodated into how we … ER -