2024 Distinguished Scientist Lecturer - Kevin G. Volpp, MD, PhD, FAHA

Kevin G. Volpp, MD, PhD, FAHA
Founding Director of the Penn Center for Health Incentives and Behavioral Economics (CHIBE)
Mark V. Pauly President’s Distinguished Professor at the Perelman School of Medicine and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
Wynnewood, Pennsylvania

Dr. Volpp is the founding Director of the Penn Center for Health Incentives and Behavioral Economics (CHIBE) and the Mark V. Pauly President’s Distinguished Professor at the Perelman School of Medicine and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He led CHIBE to become 1 of 2 original NIH Centers on behavioral economics and health with more than 90 faculty members and trainees.

Dr. Volpp’s work focuses on developing and testing innovative ways of applying insights from behavioral economics in improving patient health behavior and increasing health system value by influencing clinician performance. Dr. Volpp oversaw the creation of the world’s first health system Nudge Unit at Penn Medicine. His work has served as the foundation for benefit design initiatives using financial incentives for smoking cessation used by many large employers, a prescription refill synchronization program for Humana members, redesign of primary care physician payment for clinicians across Hawaii, a simple health insurance plan called “Humana Simplicity”, and an ‘enhanced active choice’ approach used by tens of millions of CVS members to facilitate receiving automated medication refills. He is the Scientific Lead of the American Heart Association Health Care by Food Initiative, a major research program designed to build evidence on effectiveness and cost effectiveness of programs to improve health through increased access to nutritious food.

Dr. Volpp’s work has been recognized by the NIH Matilda White Riley Award, the John Eisenberg Award from the Society of General Internal Medicine, the American College of Physicians Behavioral Medicine Award, the Association for Clinical and Translational Science Distinguished Investigator Award for Clinical and Translational Science, the American Heart Association Distinguished Scientist Award, and numerous article-of-the-year awards. He has served as a mentor for dozens of individuals who have developed into national leaders in academia, private, and public sector organizations.

Dr. Volpp trained in Medicine and Economics at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and the Wharton School before completing training in Internal Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He was a practicing primary care physician and hospitalist for 20 years at the Philadelphia Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Volpp is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine and an editorial board member of NEJM Catalyst.

Distinguished Scientist Lecture Abstract

“Using Behavioral Economics to Improve Health”

Behavior is the final common pathway to improving health. Behavioral economists have elucidated ways in which people make decisions that describe human behavior and have important implications for intervention design. In this talk I will describe the arc of my career, focusing on ways in which behavioral economics has been used to influence behaviors of both patients and clinicians to improve health. Working with a variety of partners we have developed ways of systematically improving clinician decision making and increasing patient engagement in health-improving programs which I will summarize, highlighting both some of the learning and the limitations. I will also describe AHA’s new Health Care by Food (HCxF) initiative and how we are using behavioral science to enhance current approaches. Finally, I will share some insights from my personal experience as a survivor of a sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) including some of the ways in which we could reduce the risk of SCA and improve survival rates for those who experience cardiac arrests in the future.