Assistant professor of health care policy and medicine Zirui Song, MD, PhD has been awarded the 2020 National Institute for Health Care Management (NIHCM) Research Award for his paper “Effect of a Workplace Wellness Program on Employee Health and Economic Outcomes: A Randomized Clinical Trial.”

The study, published in JAMA with co-author Katherine Baicker, PhD, Dean and Emmett Dedmon Professor at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy, investigates the effect of a large workplace wellness program on employee health, their health care costs, and employment outcomes. Analyzing a large U.S. retail warehouse company that implemented an employee wellness program, Song and Baicker found that after 18 months, employees exposed to the programs reported better health behaviors such as regular exercise and weight management, but did not show improved clinical measures of health such as blood pressure, cholesterol, or weight. Furthermore, their job performance was not affected and they did not have lower health care use or spending compared to the control group.

“The two winning papers this year address an important topic – the effect of workplace wellness programs,” said Loren Baker, PhD, Senior Fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research and chair of the NIHCM Research Award selection committee, “They use strong methods and they produce results that will be important for policy and practice.”

Song joins colleague John D. MacArthur Professor of Health Policy and Management Joseph P. Newhouse, PhD, (2014) as a recipient of this award.

The National Institute for Health Care Management is a nonprofit organization dedicated to transforming health care by supporting research, bringing new ideas to large audiences, and giving a real-world market perspective to issues facing health care.