AcademyHealth Honors Leading Health Services Researchers

WASHINGTON, D.C. (June 3, 2007)—AcademyHealth announced its 2007 award winners today. The four prestigious awards recognize individuals who have made significant contributions to the fields of health services research and health policy.

"The awards, each independently selected by distinguished leaders from our field, honor new and established leaders whose research advances policy and practice to improve health and health care,” says W. David Helms, Ph.D., president and CEO of AcademyHealth.

The following awards will be presented at the 2007 Annual Research Meeting, June 3–5 in Orlando :

Distinguished Investigator Award

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. 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. He is currently studying the effect of poor health on worker productivity.

Alice S. Hersh New Investigator Award

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

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

Benjamin Lê 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. Dr. Cook'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.

AcademyHealth is the professional home for health services researchers, policy analysts, and practitioners, and a leading, non-partisan resource for the best in health research and policy. AcademyHealth seeks to improve health and health care by generating new knowledge and moving knowledge into action.

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