Scanlon Receives Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Investigator Award

Press Release - April 21, 2003

University Park, Pa. -- Dennis P. Scanlon, Penn State assistant professor of health policy and administration, has received a three-year, $275,000 grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation through its Investigator Awards in Health Policy Research program. Investigator Awards are given annually to a select group of individuals whose crosscutting and innovative research shows the greatest promise of tackling the most challenging health care and health policy issues facing America today.

Scanlon will use his award to assess whether relying on private sector purchasers of health care can lead to demonstrable improvements in quality as envisioned by the Institute of Medicine and others. Specifically, he will conduct projects with private sector purchasing organizations such as the Leapfrog Group and the National Business Coalition on Health.

Scanlon's research focuses on the quality and performance of traditional and managed care health plans and measures the information that is available to employers and consumers that allows them to make educated decisions about their health insurance coverage. He has written or co-written 15 articles and made nearly 60 presentations related to his research, and he is the co-principal investigator or co-director on several projects that have received funding from The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

Scanlon has received several awards, including the John D. Thompson Prize for Young Investigators from the Association of University Programs in Health Administration; the Academic Excellence Award from the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Michigan Foundation; an outstanding teaching award from the University of Pittsburgh; the Adam Smith Award for excellence in economics research from Villanova University; and a Fulton Congressional Internship from the Pittsburgh Foundation. He is a member of the Omicron Delta Epsilon and Phi Kappa Phi honor societies, and he also sits on the editorial boards of Medical Care Research and Review and The American Journal of Managed Care.

Scanlon received a bachelor's degree in economics from Villanova University, a master's degree in economics from the University of Pittsburgh and a Ph.D. in health services organization and policy from the School of Public Health at the University of Michigan. He has been a member of the Penn State faculty since 1998.
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This press release courtesy of Penn State's Department of Public Information