Kevin Volpp, MD, PhD, was presented with the 2015 Association for Clinical and Translational Science (ACTS) Distinguished Investigator Award for Career Achievement and Contribution to Clinical and Translational Science for translation from clinical use into public benefit and policy at the organization’s sixth annual meeting last month in Washington, D.C. Volpp is a professor of Medicine and Health Care Management, director of the Center for Health Incentives and Behavioral Economics in the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics, and vice chair of health policy in the department of Medical Ethics and Health Policy at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

The ACTS Distinguished Investigator Award recognizes a senior investigator whose innovative research or education leadership has had a major impact on or through clinical and translational science.

In 2008, Volpp helped found the Center for Health Incentives and Behavioral Economics (CHIBE), one of the first centers in the United States dedicated to the implementation of behavioral economic research in health. CHIBE is still just one of two such National Institutes of Health-funded centers in the United States.

Volpp’s work developing innovative methods to encourage improved patient health has netted him numerous awards and honors over the years. These include the AcademyHealth Alice S. Hersh New Investigator Award, the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, and the British Medical Journal Group Impact Award for translating research into practice. In 2012, he was elected to the Association of American Physicians and the Institute of Medicine. His work has led to programs to improve health behavior now widely used by entities across the country, including programs at General Electric, CVS Health and Humana.