Roybal Center for Translational Research in Aging	Print Issue
February 23, 2010, Volume 56, No. 23

The new PENN CMU (Carnegie Mellon University) Roybal Center on Behavioral Economics and Health, part of the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Health Incentives at the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics, has been given $1,841,184 over 5 years by the National Institute on Aging (NIA), part of the National Institutes of Health.

The PENN CMU Roybal Center, which opened in September 2009, is designed to research ways to translate behavior economic approaches to improve health-promoting behaviors and health care delivery in older adults.  Dr. Kevin Volpp, associate professor of medicine and health care management at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and director of the Center for Health Incentives, leads the new center with assistance from co-principal investigator Dr. George Loewenstein, professor of economics and psychology at Carnegie Mellon University and director of behavioral economics at the Center for Health Incentives.

The NIA announced that it will be renewing funding for nine Edward R. Roybal Centers for Translational Research on Aging and designated four new centers. The goal of the Roybal Centers is to move promising social and behavioral research findings out of the laboratory and into programs and practices that will improve the lives of older people and help society adapt to an aging population.

For information about the award, see the NIA news release at www.nia.nih.gov/NewsAndEvents/PressReleases/PR20100204Roybals.htm