I help healthcare, pharmaceutical, life sciences, and research teams turn behavioral science into clearer strategy, stronger communication, and more actionable insights.
Most organizations already have data, research, experience, and strong internal expertise. The challenge is that human behavior rarely moves in a straight line from evidence to action. Patients, providers, caregivers, and stakeholders make decisions under pressure, in complex environments, and through the influence of bias, emotion, habit, social norms, prior experiences, and real-world constraints.
My work helps teams understand what is happening beneath the surface of behavior so they can move from interesting findings to clearer decisions, better interventions, and more meaningful outcomes.
The goal is not simply more information. The goal is better interpretation, stronger alignment, and a credible path to action.
Why Behavioral Science Matters
In healthcare, decisions are made by humans — not by data alone.
A provider may recognize clinical evidence but still be shaped by time pressure, diagnostic habits, peer norms, patient expectations, reimbursement concerns, uncertainty, or prior experience. A patient may understand what they are supposed to do but still face fear, stigma, mistrust, identity concerns, logistical barriers, or competing priorities.
Behavioral science helps explain the gap between what people say they will do and what they actually do.
For clients, this matters because better behavioral understanding can lead to:
When teams understand the behavioral mechanisms driving decisions, they are better equipped to influence behavior ethically, strategically, and practically.
What I Do
I provide a behavioral science lens that strengthens research, strategy, communication, and decision-making.
This work often sits between research and action. I help teams interpret existing insights, refine questions, identify behavioral mechanisms, synthesize complex information, and translate findings into practical implications that stakeholders can use.
Depending on the engagement, this may include:
The result is research that becomes more behaviorally precise before, during, and after the fieldwork not just in the final slide deck.
The Behavioral Science Overlay
A Behavioral Science Overlay can be added to an existing research project, strategy, medical coursework, or consulting engagement.
It is designed to help teams ask better questions, listen for deeper mechanisms, and translate findings into clearer implications.
The overlay can help your team:
Refine the question
Clarify what behavior you are trying to understand, change, support, or influence.
Improve the approach
Strengthen research design, recruitment criteria, interview questions, focus group prompts, survey items, or discussion guides.
Listen for mechanisms
Identify the biases, barriers, drivers, emotions, expectations, social influences, and contextual pressures shaping behavior.
Synthesize insights
Connect findings across interviews, studies, literature, prior projects, internal data, or stakeholder perspectives.
Frame implications
Translate findings into decision-ready language that supports strategy, communication, education, or intervention planning.
Support client-facing work
Provide behavioral science interpretation, academic grounding, strategic thought partnership, and support for client questions or final deliverables.
What Clients Bring — and What Clients Get
Clients often bring:
Clients receive:
This is where behavioral science translation creates value: it helps teams move from “what did we learn?” to “what does this mean, why does it matter, and what could we do next?”
Areas of Expertise
My work integrates behavioral economics, consumer psychology, social psychology, provider decision-making, patient behavior, and healthcare systems thinking.
Areas of focus include:
I bring academic rigor and practical clarity to work that must be credible, useful, and understandable to multiple audiences.
Example Applications
The same behavioral science lens can reveal different mechanisms depending on the clinical, commercial, or educational context:
Rare liver disease
What biases, heuristics, or contextual pressures may delay recognition, referral, diagnosis, or persistence through a complex care journey?
Obesity and GLP-1s
How do identity, stigma, expectations, provider framing, perceived risk, and long-term motivation shape uptake, adherence, and persistence?
HPV vaccination
Which social influences, risk perceptions, caregiver concerns, provider communication patterns, and practical barriers affect vaccination decisions?
Across therapeutic areas, the process is similar:
behavioral mechanism → strategic implication → intervention thought-starter
The value is helping teams see not only what people say, but what may be driving behavior and where change may be possible.
Therapeutic and Industry Experience
I have applied this lens across a range of healthcare, pharmaceutical, and industry contexts, including:
Engagement Options
Engagements are selective, collaborative, and outcome-led. Each project begins with a clear understanding of the desired behavior, audience, decision context, constraints, and intended use of the work.
Work can be structured as:
Because each engagement is customized, I do not offer standardized packages. Scope and fees are based on the depth of synthesis required, the complexity of the decision context, and the level of strategic interpretation involved.
Select projects are accepted each quarter.
Core Services
Behavioral Science Overlay
A flexible consulting layer that strengthens research, strategy, and client deliverables through behavioral science interpretation. This can include methodology refinement, live listening, synthesis, implication development, and support for final client-facing work.
Executive Evidence Briefs
Concise, structured briefs that translate academic, clinical, and behavioral science research into decision-ready insights for non-academic audiences. These briefs can also take a second look at existing internal or external findings to surface implications that may not have been visible in the original analysis.
Rapid Evidence Reviews
Focused syntheses of existing research on a defined topic. These reviews highlight what the evidence suggests, where there is convergence or disagreement, and where thoughtful experimentation or intervention may be warranted.
Behavioral Insight Labs
Facilitated working sessions that help teams revisit existing evidence, challenge assumptions, identify overlooked implications, and generate practical next-step thought starters grounded in behavioral science.
Who This Is For
This work is designed for organizations and teams that value rigor but need clarity, relevance, and actionability.
I commonly work with:
Why Work With Me
I bring more than a decade of experience in behavioral and consumer insights consulting, with a primary focus in the medical and pharmaceutical industry.
My background combines behavioral economics, consumer behavior, social psychology, organizational psychology, academic leadership, applied research, and practical consulting.
I help teams make sense of complex human behavior without oversimplifying the science.
That means translating evidence into language people can use, identifying mechanisms that explain behavior, and helping teams connect insight to action in ways that are credible, ethical, and practical.
Ready to Add a Behavioral Science Lens?
If your team is working on a healthcare research, strategy, communication, education, or innovation project, behavioral science can help clarify what is happening, why it matters, and what to do next.
Let’s turn evidence into action — and insight into decisions that matter in the real world.
Copyright © 2026 Dr. Elizabeth Schwab - All Rights Reserved.
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