Kevin Volpp

Founders President’s Distinguished Professor, Medical Ethics and Health Policy
Director, Center for Health Incentives and Behavioral Economics, Leonard Davis Institute
Professor of Medicine
Professor of Health Care Management

Contact Information

Primary Email:
volpp70@wharton.upenn.edu
Office Phone:
215-573-0720
Office Fax Phone:
215-573-8778

office Address:
Center for Health Incentives and Behavioral Economics
1120 Blockley Hall 423 Guardian Drive
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6021

Research Interests: aetna foundation, aramark, cdc, cvs caremark, discovery (south africa), financial incentives, hewlett foundation, mckinsey, nhlbi, nia, niddk, research interests and funding sources:behavioral economics and health, rwj

Links: CV, Personal Website

Overview

Dr. Volpp’s work focuses on developing and testing innovative ways of applying insights from behavioral economics in improving patient health behavior and affecting provider performance. He leads the Penn LDI Center for Health Incentives and Behavioral Economics, 1 of 2 NIH Centers on behavioral economics and health in the United States as well as (with Karen Glanz) the Penn CDC Prevention Research Center. He is the Vice Chair for Health Policy in the Department of Medical Ethics and Health Policy at the Perelman School of Medicine. He has published more than 175 papers based on work with a wide range of employers, insurers, health systems, and consumer companies in the US and overseas in testing the effectiveness of different behavioral economic strategies in improving health behavior and health outcomes. These studies have been funded by the National Institutes of Aging as well as the National Heart Lung, Blood Institute; the National Cancer Institute; the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Disorders; the CDC;VA Health Services Research and Development; the US Department of Agriculture; Robert Wood Johnson Foundation; the Hewlett Foundation; the Commonwealth Foundation; the Aetna Foundation; Mckinsey; CVS Caremark; Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield; Humana; Aramark; Discovery (South Africa); Hawaii Medical Services Association; Merck; and Weight Watchers. His work has garnered numerous awards including career achievement awards from NIH for his work on social and behavioral sciences and election into the National Academy of Medicine.

Education

PhD, University of Pennsylvania (Wharton) 1998; MD, University of Pennsylvania 1998; AB, Harvard College, 1989

Recent Consulting/Advisory Boards

CVS Caremark, VAL Health
World Economic Forum Global Advisory Council on Behavior

Editorial Boards

JAMA Contributing writer
Health Care: Delivery Science and Innovation

Research

Colman Humphrey, Dylan Small, Shane T. Jensen, Kevin Volpp, David A. Asch, Jingsan Zhu, Andrea B. Troxel (2019), Modeling Lottery Incentives for Daily Adherence, Statistics in Medicine, 38 (15), pp. 2847-2867.
Maguire Herriman, Kevin Volpp, Maurice Schweitzer (2019), Beyond ‘Rub Some Dirt on It:’ The Need for an Intervention to Prevent Sports Injuries, Journal of American Medical Association Pediatrics, 173 (3), pp. 215-216.
Hengchen Dai, David Mao, Jason Riis, Kevin Volpp, Michael J. Relish, Victor F. Lawnicki, Katherine L. Milkman (2017), Effectiveness of Medication Adherence Reminders Tied to “Fresh Start” Dates: A Randomized Clinical Trial, Journal of the American Medical Association: Cardiology, 2 (4), pp. 453-455.
Hengchen Dai, David Mao, Kevin Volpp, Heather E. Pearce, Michael J. Relish, Victor F. Lawnicki, Katherine L. Milkman (2017), The effect of interactive reminders on medication adherence: A randomized trial, Preventive Medicine, 103, pp. 98-102. 10.1016/j.ypmed.2017.07.019
Heather Schofield, J. Kopsic, Kevin Volpp, George Loewenstein (2015), Comparing the effectiveness of individualistic, altruistic, and competitive incentives in motivating completion of mental exercises, Journal of Health Economics, 44, pp. 286-299.
Abstract: This study examines the impact of individually oriented, purely altruistic, and a hybrid of competitive and cooperative monetary reward incentives on older adults’ completion of cognitive exercises and cognitive function. We find that all three incentive structures approximately double the number of exercises completed during the six-week active experimental period relative to a no incentive control condition. However, the altruistic and cooperative/competitive incentives led to different patterns of participation, with significantly higher inter-partner correlations in utilization of the software, as well as greater persistence once incentives were removed. Provision of all incentives significantly improved performance on the incentivized exercises. However, results of an independent cognitive testing battery suggest no generalizable gains in cognitive function resulted from the training.
G Loewenstein, J Price, Kevin Volpp (2015), Habit Formation in Children: Evidence from Incentives for Healthy Eating Journal of Health Economics, J Health Econ , 45, pp. 47-54.
Ezekiel J. Emanuel, P. Ubel, Judd B. Kessler, G. Meyer, R. Muller, Amol Navathe, P. Patel, R. Pearl, MB Rosenthal, L. Sacks, AP Sen, P. Sherman, Kevin Volpp (2015), Using Behavioral Economics to Design Physician Incentives that Deliver High Value Care, Annals of Internal Medicine, 24, pp. 1-7.
Kevin Volpp (2015), ACA-mandated elimination of cost sharing for preventive screening has had limited early impact, Journal of Manged Care, 21 (7), pp. 511-517.
Scott Halpern, Benjamin French, Dylan Small, Kathryn Saulsgiver, Michael Harhay, Janet Audrain-McGovern, George Loewenstein, Troyen Brennan, David A. Asch, Kevin Volpp (2015), Randomized Trial of Four Financial-Incentive Programs for Smoking Cessation, New England Journal of Medicine, 372, pp. 2108-2117.
Benjamin French, Dylan Small, Julie Novak, Kathryn Saulsgiver, Michael Harhay, David A. Asch, Kevin Volpp, Scott Halpern (2015), Preference-Adaptive Randomization in Comparative Effectiveness Studies, Trials, 16 (99), pp. 1-9.

Awards and Honors

	2014-2016		World Economic Forum – chosen to serve on Global Advisory Council on Behavior
	2014		Luigi Mastroiaonni Clinical Innovations Award (with David Asch for Way to Health software platform), Penn Medicine
	2015		Matilda White Riley Award For Contributions to Social and Behavioral Science, 20th anniversary of the Office of Social and Behavioral Sciences Research, NIH
	2015		Association for Clinical and Translational Science (ACTS) Distinguished Investigator Award for Translation from Clinical Use into Public Benefit and Policy. “Award for Career Achievement and Contribution to Clinical and Translational Science”
	2016		Article-of-the-Year Award, “Effect of Financial Incentives on Physicians, Patients, or Both on Lipid Levels”, Academy Heath Annual Meeting, Boston, MA
	2017		50@50 notable People, Papers, and Events from the UPENN Leonard Davis Institute’s First Half-Century Award for 2009 New England Journal of Medicine article and 2010 British Medical Journal Group Award for Translating Research into Practice
	2018		John McGovern, M.D. Award for ‘exemplary service to academic medicine’ from Association of Academic Health Centers
	2019		John Eisenberg National Award for Career Achievement in Research, Society of General Internal Medicine
	2019		ACP Behavioral Medicine Award, American College of Physicians
	2019		Michael O’Donnell Article-of-the-Year, American J of Hlth Promotion (for John L, Troxel AB, Yancy W et al. The Effect of Cost Sharing on an Employee Weight Loss Program: A Randomized Trial. Am J Hlth Promotion 2018;32(1): 170-176). Role: Senior author

Elected to Association of American Physicians (AAP), 2012
Elected to Institute of Medicine, National Academy of Sciences (IOM), 2012
Philadelphia Business Journal Innovation Award, 2012
British Medical Journal Group Awards for “Translating Research into Practice” for work on Financial Incentives and Smoking Cessation implemented by General Electric nationally for 152,000 employees January, 2010
Society of General Internal Medicine Outstanding Research Paper of the Year for Volpp KG, Troxel AB, Pauly MV, et al. New England Journal of Medicine; 2009; 360:699-709, 2010
Time Magazine Most Significant Advances in Health 2009 A-Z. Work descibed under “I” for “Incentives”, 2009
Elected to American Society of Clinical Investigation (ASCI), 2008
Best Paper Award – AcademyHealth Annual R esearch Meeting (with A Rosen, P Romano, P Rosenbaum, J Silber) – “Impact of ACGME Duty Hours on Mortality Among Patients in VA Hospitals” – one of three highest rated abstracts our of about 1700 submitted., 2007
Alice S. Hersh New Investigator Award, AcademyHealth, for “exceptional promise for future contributions to health services research”, 2007
Society of General Internal Medicine Outstanding Junior Investigator Award, 2006
John Thompson Award from Association of University Programs in Health Administration (AUPHA) for outstanding accomplishments in health services research as a junior investigator, 2006
Presidential Award for Early Career Scientistis and Engineers (PECASE) – recognized at White House by President Bush with highest honor given by US government for early career scientists, 2005
Association for Clinical and Translational Science (ACTS) Distinguished Investigator Award for Translation from Clinical Use into Public Benefit and Policy. “Award for Career Achievement and Contribution to Clinical and Translational Science”, 1970
Matilda White Riley Award For Contributions to Social and Behavioral Science, 20th anniversary of the Office of Social and Behavioral Sciences Research, NIH, 1970
Article-of-the-Year Award, “Effect of Financial Incentives on Physicians, Patients, or Both on Lipid Levels”, Academy Heath Annual Meeting, Boston, MA, 1970
World Economic Forum – chosen to serve on Global Advisory Council on Behavior, 1970

Activity

Latest Research

Colman Humphrey, Dylan Small, Shane T. Jensen, Kevin Volpp, David A. Asch, Jingsan Zhu, Andrea B. Troxel (2019), Modeling Lottery Incentives for Daily Adherence, Statistics in Medicine, 38 (15), pp. 2847-2867.

All Research

In the News

How Firms Can Convince Employees to Quit Smoking

As companies struggle to contain soaring health care costs, employee smoking remains a challenge. But a recent study by two University of Pennsylvania experts found that cash can be a powerful incentive to help smokers quit.

Knowledge @ Wharton - 2018/08/28

All News

Awards and Honors

Elected to Association of American Physicians (AAP) 2012

All Awards