Dennis Patrick Scanlon
Director of the Center for Health Care and Policy Research
NCAA Faculty Athletics Representative
Dennis Scanlon is Distinguished Professor of Health Policy and Administration in the College of Health and Human Development, Director of the Center for Health Care and Policy Research, and the NCAA Faculty Athletics Representative at The Pennsylvania State University.
University Park, PA 16802
Dr. Scanlon's research focuses on understanding the role of measurement, incentives, quality improvement, and individual and organizational behavior change for improving important health care outcomes, including clinical quality, patient experience, and economic efficiency. Dr. Scanlon serves on the editorial board of journals, such as Medical Care Research and Review, the American Journal of Managed Care and Health Services Research. He is currently serving as Associate Editor at the American Journal of Managed Care and Senior Associate Editor at Health Services Research.
Dr. Scanlon has served on several national, local, and international advisory panels for organizations such as AHRQ, NQF, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and the European Commission. Currently, he is a co-investigator of an AHRQ Center of Excellence award focused on understanding health care delivery systems and the degree to which they adapt Patient Centered Outcomes Research (PCOR) evidence. Dennis also served as the Principal Investigator for the evaluation of the Aligning Forces for Quality initiative — RWJF’s signature effort to improve the health and health care of 37 million people nationwide. He has published more than 100 articles, book chapters, and reports and is a frequent speaker to academic, policy, and practice audiences.
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Scanlon, D. P., Wolf, L. J., Alexander, J. A., Christianson, J. B., Greene, J., Jean-Jacques, M., McHugh, M., Shi, Y., Leitzell, B., & Vanderbrink, J. M. (2016). Evaluating a complex, multi-site, community-based program to improve healthcare quality: The summative research design for the aligning forces for quality initiative. American Journal of Managed Care, (12 Suppl), es8-3s16. http://www.ajmc.com/journals/supplement/2016/af4q-summative-findings-and-lessons-learned.
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Scanlon, D. P., Beich, J., Leitzell, Shaw, B. W., Alexander, J. A., Christianson, J. B., Farley, D. C., Greene, J., Jean-Jacques, M., McHugh, M., & Wolf, L. J.. (2016). The aligning forces for quality initiative: Background and evolution from 2005-2015. American Journal of Managed Care, (12 Suppl), s346-59. http://www.ajmc.com/journals/supplement/2016/af4q-summative-findings-and-lessons-learned.
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Shi, Y., Scanlon, D. P., Kang, R., McHugh, M., Greene, J., Christianson, J. B, Jean-Jacques, M., Mahmud, Y. & Alexander, J. A. (2016). The longitudinal impact of aligning forces for quality on measures of population health, quality and experience of care, and cost of care. American Journal of Managed Care, (12 Suppl), 2373-81. http://www.ajmc.com/journals/supplement/2016/ af4q-summative-findings -and-lessons-learned.
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Christianson, J. B., Shaw, B. W., Greene, J., & Scanlon, D. P. (2016). Reporting provider performance: What can be learned from the experience of multi-stakeholder community coalitions? American Journal of Managed Care, (12 Suppl), s382-92. http://www.ajmc.com/journals/supplement/2016/af4q-summative-findings-and-lessons-learned.
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McHugh, M., Harvey, J. B., Hamil, J., & Scanlon, D. P. (2016). Improving care delivery at the community level: An examination of the AF4Q legacy. American Journal of Managed Care, (12 Suppl), s393-402. http://www.ajmc.com/journals/supplement/2016/af4q-summative-findings-and-lessons-learned.
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Greene, J., Farley, D. C., Christianson, J. B., Scanlon, D. P., & Shi, Y. (2016). From rhetoric to reality: Consumer engagement in 16 multi-stakeholder alliances. American Journal of Managed Care, (12 Suppl), s403-12. http://www.ajmc.com/journals/supplement/2016/af4q-summative-findings-and-lessons-learned.
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Scanlon, D. P., Alexander, J., McHugh, M. C., Beich, J., Christian, J. B., Greene, J., Jean-Jacques, M., Leitzel, B., Shi, Y. & Wolf, L. J.. (2016). Summative evaluation results and lesson learned from the aligning forces for quality program. American Journal of Managed Care, (12 Suppl), s360-72. http://www.ajmc.com/journals/supplement/2016/af4q-summative-findings-and-lessons-learned.
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Shi, Y., Scanlon, D. P., Bhandari, N., & Christianson, J. B. (2016). Is anyone paying attention to physician report cards? The impact of increased availability on consumers’ awareness and use of physician quality information. Health Services Research. http://doi.10.1111/1475-6773.12540. Ebpub ahead
In January 2017, Dr. Scanlon was named Distinguished Professor of Health Policy and Administration at Penn State, in recognition of his outstanding contributions to the College of Health and Human Development and the University. Dennis was the 2014 recipient of the Evan G. and Helen G. Pattishall Outstanding Research Achievement Award, an award that honors a faculty member’s outstanding research contributions occurring or culminating within the past several years. In 2005, Dennis was the recipient of the Fran and Holly Soistman Faculty Development Award, which honors a faculty member’s engagement in significant, innovative research related to the design, development, delivery, administration or evaluation of health care services. Both were awarded by the College of Health and Human Development at Penn State. Dennis received the John D. Thompson Prize for Young Investigators in 2002, given annually by the Association of University Programs in Health Administration to an outstanding young investigator in the field of health services research. He also was awarded the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s (RWJF) Investigator in Health Policy Research Award in 2002.
In addition to teaching, research, and service on many College and University-wide committees, Dennis was appointed by the University President in July 2017 to serve as the NCAA Faculty Athletics Representative for Penn State in University Park. In this role, he serves as an ex officio member of the Senate Committee on Intercollegiate Athletics and as the primary liaison between the Athletic Director and the Faculty Senate.