Now Reading: Mondays Matter for Health Decisions

Is the term “Circaseptan” about to become established in medicine? I know it as the “Monday” phenomenon – they didn’t teach me this word in medical school or residency.

What this paper shows, and which has been widely reported, is that there is a periodicity in behavior change activities, in this case in smoking cessation behavior. Knowing this is like being aware that time and effort spent being available to support people is more valuable on a certain day of the week, because that’s when people are ready and focused.

I’ve had the good fortune to meet Sid Lerner and Peggy Neu, the leaders behind the Monday Campaigns, and Peggy also came to our Forum for Healthy Behavior Change earlier this year (see: Photo Friday: Walk with Docs, Forum for Healthy Behavior Change 2013, Washington, DC USA | Ted Eytan, MD).

I caught a good snapshot of Peggy and BJ Fogg (@bjfogg) together – both of their work is a great example of how health care can use our minds rather than our money to do what we do a little better for the people we take care of.

Ted Eytan, MD