Kevin Volpp

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

Scott Halpern, Benjamin French, Dylan Small, Kathryn Saulsgiver, Michael Harhay, Janet AudrainMcGovern, George Loewenstein, Troyen Brennan, David A. Asch, Kevin Volpp (2015), Randomized Trial of Four FinancialIncentive Programs for Smoking Cessation, New England Journal of Medicine, 372, pp. 21082117.

Benjamin French, Dylan Small, Julie Novak, Kathryn Saulsgiver, Michael Harhay, David A. Asch, Kevin Volpp, Scott Halpern (2015), PreferenceAdaptive Randomization in Comparative Effectiveness Studies, Trials, 16 (99), pp. 19.

Kevin Volpp, C Terwiesch, AB Troxel, S Mehta, David A. Asch (2014), Making the RCT more useful for innovation with evidencebased evolutionary testing, Healthcare: The Journal of Delivery Science and Innovation, 1:47.

Mitesh Patel, Kevin Volpp, Dylan Small, Alexander Hill, Orit EvenShoshan, 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. 23642373.

Todd Rogers, Katherine L. Milkman, Kevin Volpp (2014), Commitment Devices to Improve Unhealthy Behaviors: In Reply, Journal of the American Medical Association, 312 (15), pp. 15921593.

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. 9961003.

Kevin Volpp (2014), The CAATCH Study and Ways to Enhance the Next Wave of Behavioral Interventions, Circulation, 129 (20), pp. 20022004.

Todd Rogers, Katherine L. Milkman, Kevin Volpp (2014), Commitment Devices: Using Initiatives to Change Behavior, Journal of the American Medical Association, 311 (20), pp. 20652066.

Aditi Sen, Taylor B. Sewell, E. Brooks Riley, Beth Stearman, Scarlett L. Bellamy, Michelle F. Hu, Yuanyuan Tao, Jingsan Zhu, James D. Park, George Loewenstein, David A. Asch, Kevin Volpp (2014), Financial Incentives for HomeBased Health Monitoring: A Randomized Controlled Trial, Journal of General Internal Medicine, 29 (5), pp. 770777.

Abstract: BACKGROUND: Home wireless device monitoring could play an important role in improving the health of patients with poorly controlled chronic diseases, but daily engagement rates among these patients may be low. OBJECTIVE: To test the effectiveness of two different magnitudes of financial incentives for improving adherence to remotemonitoring regimens among patients with poorly controlled diabetes. DESIGN: Randomized, controlled trial. (Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT01282957). PARTICIPANTS: Seventyfive patients with a hemoglobin A1c greater than or equal to 7.5% recruited from a Primary Care Medical Home practice at the University of Pennsylvania Health System. INTERVENTIONS: Twelve weeks of daily homemonitoring of blood glucose, blood pressure, and weight (control group; n = 28); a lottery incentive with expected daily value of $2.80 (n = 26) for daily monitoring; and a lottery incentive with expected daily value of $1.40 (n = 21) for daily monitoring. MAIN MEASURES: Daily use of three homemonitoring devices during the threemonth intervention (primary outcome) and during the threemonth followup period and change in A1c over the intervention period (secondary outcomes). KEY RESULTS: Incentive arm participants used devices on a higher proportion of days relative to control (81% low incentive vs. 58%, P = 0.007; 77% high incentive vs. 58%, P = 0.02) during the threemonth intervention period. There was no difference in adherence between the two incentive arms (P = 0.58). When incentives were removed, adherence in the high incentive arm declined while remaining relatively high in the low incentive arm. In month 6, the low incentive arm had an adherence rate of 62% compared to 35% in the high incentive arm (P = 0.015) and 27% in the control group (P = 0.002). CONCLUSIONS: A daily lottery incentive worth $1.40 per day improved monitoring rates relative to control and had significantly better efficacy once incentives were removed than a higher incentive.

Jeffrey H. Silber, PS Romano, KMF Itani, AK Rosen, D Small, RS Lipner, CL Bosk, Y Wang, MJ Halenar, S Korovaichuk, O. EvenShoshan, Kevin Volpp (2014), Assessing the effects of the 2003 resident duty hours reform on internal medicine board scores , Acad Med.

• 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; 360:699709, 2010
• Time Magazine Most Significant Advances in Health 2009 AZ. 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
• ArticleoftheYear 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

Knowledge @ Wharton

• How Behavioral Economics Could Solve America’s Health Care Woes, Knowledge @ Wharton 05/12/2017
• How to Convince Workers to Quit Smoking – by Making a Bet, Knowledge @ Wharton 05/22/2015
• Why Some Innovation Tournaments Succeed and Others Fail, Knowledge @ Wharton 02/20/2014
• Using ‘The Hunger Games’ to Encourage Healthier Choices, Knowledge @ Wharton 11/19/2013
• Dieting in the Digital Age, Knowledge @ Wharton 10/04/2013