Kevin Volpp, MD, PhD is the founding Director of the Center for Health Incentives and Behavioral Economics (CHIBE) and the Mark V. Pauly President’s Distinguished Professor at Perelman School of Medicine and Health Care Management at the Wharton School. He is also the Scientific leader of an extensive new American Heart Association Food is Medicine Initiative.
Dr. Volpp’s work focuses on developing and testing innovative ways of applying insights from behavioral economics in improving patient health behavior and clinician performance. He has done work with a variety of employers, insurers, health systems, and consumer companies in testing the effectiveness of different behavioral economic strategies in addressing tobacco dependence, obesity, and medication non-adherence. He has competitively been awarded more than $98 million to lead or co-lead studies funded by the NIH; the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation; the CDC; VA Health Services Research and Development; Robert Wood Johnson Foundation; the Hewlett Foundation; the Commonwealth Foundation; the Aetna Foundation; Mckinsey; CVS Caremark; Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield; Hawaii Medical Services Association; Merck; Humana; Aramark; WW; and Discovery (South Africa).
Dr. Volpp has published over 300 articles including work in journals such as the New England Journal of Medicine, Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), and Health Affairs, and has been covered by media outlets such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, Good Morning America, BBC, National Public Radio, Der Spiegel, Freakonomics and Freakonomics MD, and Australian National Radio.
Dr. Volpp earned an MD from the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine and a PhD from Wharton and completed medical training at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine and an editorial board member of the NEJM Catalyst.
Areas of Expertise | Behavior Change, Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Medication Adherence
Clinical Area | Hospital Medicine
Selected Publications:
Thirumurthy H, Milkman KL, Volpp KG, Buttenheim AM, Pope DG. Association between statewide financial incentive programs and COVID-19 vaccination rates. PLoS One. 2022 Mar 30;17(3):e0263425. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0263425. PMID: 35353815; PMCID: PMC8966995.
Volpp KG, Loewenstein G, Buttenheim AM. Behaviorally Informed Strategies for a National COVID-19 Vaccine Promotion Program. JAMA. 2021 Jan 12;325(2):125-126. doi: 10.1001/jama.2020.24036. PMID: 33315079; PMCID: PMC9014824.
Navathe AS, Emanuel EJ, Bond A, Linn K, Caldarella K, Troxel A, Zhu J, Yang L, Matloubieh SE, Drye E, Bernheim S, Lee EO, Mugiishi M, Endo KT, Yoshimoto J, Yuen I, Okamura S, Stollar M, Tom J, Gold M, Volpp KG. Association Between the Implementation of a Population-Based Primary Care Payment System and Achievement on Quality Measures in Hawaii. JAMA. 2019 Jul 2;322(1):57-68. doi: 10.1001/jama.2019.8113. PMID: 31265101; PMCID: PMC6613291.
Halpern SD, French B, Small DS, Saulsgiver K, Harhay MO, Audrain-McGovern J, Loewenstein G, Brennan TA, Asch DA, Volpp KG. Randomized trial of four financial-incentive programs for smoking cessation. N Engl J Med. 2015 May 28;372(22):2108-17. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa1414293. Epub 2015 May 13. PMID: 25970009; PMCID: PMC4471993.
Halpern SD, Harhay MO, Saulsgiver K, Brophy C, Troxel AB, Volpp KG. A Pragmatic Trial of E-Cigarettes, Incentives, and Drugs for Smoking Cessation. N Engl J Med. 2018 Jun 14;378(24):2302-2310. doi: 10.1056/NEJMsa1715757. Epub 2018 May 23. PMID: 29791259.
Patel MS, Benjamin EJ, Volpp KG, Fox CS, Small DS, Massaro JM, Lee JJ, Hilbert V, Valentino M, Taylor DH, Manders ES, Mutalik K, Zhu J, Wang W, Murabito JM. Effect of a Game-Based Intervention Designed to Enhance Social Incentives to Increase Physical Activity Among Families: The BE FIT Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA Intern Med. 2017 Nov 1;177(11):1586-1593. doi: 10.1001/jamainternmed.2017.3458. PMID: 28973115; PMCID: PMC5710273.
Case MA, Burwick HA, Volpp KG, Patel MS. Accuracy of smartphone applications and wearable devices for tracking physical activity data. JAMA. 2015 Feb 10;313(6):625-6. doi: 10.1001/jama.2014.17841. PMID: 25668268.
Kessler JB, Troxel AB, Asch DA, Mehta SJ, Marcus N, Lim R, Zhu J, Shrank W, Brennan T, Volpp KG. Partners and Alerts in Medication Adherence: A Randomized Clinical Trial. J Gen Intern Med. 2018 Sep;33(9):1536-1542. doi: 10.1007/s11606-018-4389-7. Epub 2018 Mar 15. PMID: 29546659; PMCID: PMC6109000.
Navathe AS, Liao JM, Yan XS, Delgado MK, Isenberg WM, Landa HM, Bond BL, Small DS, Rareshide CAL, Shen Z, Pepe RS, Refai F, Lei VJ, Volpp KG, Patel MS. The Effect Of Clinician Feedback Interventions On Opioid Prescribing. Health Aff (Millwood). 2022 Mar;41(3):424-433. doi: 10.1377/hlthaff.2021.01407. PMID: 35254932.
Volpp KG, Rosen AK, Rosenbaum PR, Romano PS, Even-Shoshan O, Wang Y, Bellini L, Behringer T, Silber JH. Mortality among hospitalized Medicare beneficiaries in the first 2 years following ACGME resident duty hour reform. JAMA. 2007 Sep 5;298(9):975-83. doi: 10.1001/jama.298.9.975. PMID: 17785642.
Visit Dr. Volpp's Google Scholar page to view more publications