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

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.
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.
Mitesh Patel, Kevin Volpp, Dylan Small, Alexander Hill, Orit Even-Shoshan, Lisa Rosenbaum, Richard Ross, Lisa Bellini, Jingsan Zhu, Jeffrey H. Silber (2014), Association of the 2011 ACGME Resident Duty Hour Reforms With Mortality and Readmissions Among Hospitalized Medicare Patients, Journal of the American Medical Association, 312 (22), pp. 2364-2373.
A Gopalan, E Tahirovic, H Moss, AB Troxel, J Zhu, G Lowenstein, Kevin Volpp (2014), Translating the Hemoglobin A1C with More Easily Understood Feedback: A Randomized Controlled Trial, J Gen Intern Med, 29(7), pp. 996-1003.

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

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

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.

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