2007 AcademyHealth Awards

Distinguished Investigator Award

The Distinguished Investigator Award recognizes investigators who have made significant and lasting contributions to the field of health services research through scholarship, teaching, advancement of science and methods, and leadership.

Mark V. Pauly, Ph.D.

Dr. Pauly currently holds the position of Bendheim Professor in the Department of Health Care Systems at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He is professor of health care systems, insurance and risk management, and business and public policy at the Wharton School and professor of economics in the School of Arts and Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania. He received a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Virginia. Dr. Pauly is a former commissioner on the Physician Payment Review Commission and an active member of the Institute of Medicine. One of the nation's leading health economists, Dr. Pauly has made significant contributions to the fields of medical economics and health insurance. His classic study on the economics of moral hazard was the first to point out how health insurance coverage may affect patients' use of medical services. Subsequent work, both theoretical and empirical, has explored the impact of conventional insurance coverage on preventive care, on outpatient care, and on prescription drug use in managed care. In addition, he has explored the influences that determine whether insurance coverage is available and, through several cost effectiveness studies, the influence of medical care and health practices on health outcomes and cost. His interests in health policy deal with ways to reduce the number of uninsured through tax credits for public and private insurance, and appropriate design for Medicare in a budget-constrained environment. He is currently studying the effect of poor health on worker productivity.

Alice S. Hersh New Investigator Award

The Alice S. Hersh New Investigator Award recognizes scholars early in their careers as health services researchers who show exceptional promise for future contributions to the field. This award commemorates the dedication of Alice Hersh to supporting the next generation of health services researchers. Ms. Hersh was the founding executive director of the Association for Health Services Research.

Kevin Volpp, M.D., Ph.D.

Dr. Volpp is a core faculty member of the Center for Health Equity Research and Promotion (CHERP) at the Philadelphia VA Medical Center, an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, and an assistant professor of health care systems at the Wharton School. He has been a recipient of career development awards from VA Health Services Research & Development and the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. Dr. Volpp completed his bachelor's degree at Harvard University before receiving an M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and a Ph.D. from the Wharton School in Public Policy and Management with a concentration in health economics. He completed his Internal Medicine residency training at the Brigham and Women's Hospital in 2001. Dr. Volpp's research program focuses on two main areas: 1) examination of the impact of organizational and financial changes in the health care system on quality of care; and 2) the effects of financial incentives on health behaviors.

Article-of-the-Year Award

The Article-of-the-Year Award recognizes the best scientific work that the fields of health services research and health policy have produced and published during the previous calendar year. The award-winning article provides new insights into the delivery of health care and advances the knowledge of the field. The 2007 Article-of-the-Year will be featured in a special session on Tuesday from 10:45 a.m.-12:15 p.m. in Asia 3.

John Hsu, M.D., M.B.A., M.S.C.E.

Dr. Hsu received this award for his lead authorship on "Unintended Consequences of Caps on Medicare Drug Benefits," which appeared in the June 1, 2006 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. This article was co-authored by Mary Price, M.A., Jie Huang, Ph.D., Richard Brand, Ph.D., Vicki Fung, B.A., Rita Hui, Pharm.D., Bruce Fireman, M.A., Joseph P. Newhouse, Ph.D., and Joseph V. Selby, M.D., M.P.H.

Dr. Hsu is a physician scientist at the Kaiser Division of Research, a fellow at the Kaiser Institute for Health Policy, and a faculty member at the University of California, San Francisco, Institute for Health Policy Studies and the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics. He received an M.D. and M.S.C.E. from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and an M.B.A. from the Wharton School of Business. Dr. Hsu studies changes in the financing and delivery of health care, with particular focus on the clinical and economic implications of these changes.

Dissertation Award

The Dissertation Award honors an outstanding scientific contribution from a doctoral thesis in health services research. Judging by the innovative research, this doctoral candidate shows exceptional promise as a health services researcher.

Benjamin Le Cook, M.P.H., Ph.D.

Dr. Cook is a researcher at Mathematica Policy Research, Inc. in Cambridge, Mass., and has recently completed a Ph.D. in health policy at Harvard University, concentrating in evaluative science and statistics. He received an M.P.H. from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill in the Department of Health Behavior and Health Education, and a B.A. in psychology from Swarthmore College. Dr. Cook has been the recipient of an AHRQ training grant, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellowship for Research in Managed Care, National Institute of Mental Health training grant, and a National Center for Minority Health and Disparities training grant, and has been a teaching assistant in Statistics and Politics of Health Policy. Benjamin's current research includes improving the methodology of determining racial disparities, identifying the impact of acculturation on mental health, and evaluating the Robert Wood Johnson Covering Kids and Families program and the Health Resources and Services Administration Healthy Start program.

Student Poster Award

The Student Poster Award (previously Pre- and Post-Doctoral Poster Award) recognizes the outstanding research of a student and the quality of the presentation during the poster session.

Marguerite E. Burns

Ms. Burns is a Ph.D. candidate at the Department of Population Health Sciences at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine & Public Health. She received the award for her poster, "Adult Beneficiaries with Disabilities: The Average Effects of Enrollment in a Medicaid MCO Relative to FSS on Health Care Expenditures Nationawide."