Our Leadership

Welcome to the American Heart Association’s food is medicine initiative, Health Care by FoodTM!

With this initiative, we aim to address barriers to the widespread adoption of healthy food as a treatment for acute and chronic conditions and the health inequities that result. 

The American Heart Association’s Health Care by Food team leverages the full multidisciplinary strength of the organization to advance the future of food is medicine. In addition to our dedicated staff, the Health Care by Food initiative is guided by many of the foremost experts in the field. 

We are excited about the initial research grants we awarded to explore food is medicine options in health care to generate evidence and tools to help design and scale programs that increase access to nutritious food.

We are committed to advancing research, advocacy and education to improve diet-related health outcomes and reduce health disparities. Consistent access to healthy food resources is a critical component to achieving this goal.

Please join us along this journey!

Lisa Sanders

National Executive Director
Health Care by Food initiative

Kevin Volpp, MD, PhD, FAHA

Scientific Lead, Health Care by Food initiative
Director, Penn Center for Health Incentives and Behavioral Economics (CHIBE)
Mark V. Pauly Presidential Distinguished Professor, Perelman School of Medicine and the
Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania

The Health Care by Food initiative is guided by the expert leadership of a Research Planning Group and multiple volunteer task forces.
Vegetables

Research Planning Group

The work of the Research Planning Group is instrumental in structuring the overall research strategy with a focus on generating the evidence necessary for achieving insurance coverage of food is medicine interventions. This group is overseeing the work of the individual task forces that have been constituted in support of this initiative.

Roster

Health Equity & Common Measures Task Force

The Health Equity & Common Measures Task Force is focused on developing and providing recommendations on centering equity in our research goals. This team is also tasked with providing recommendations to study teams on core measures to be collected across projects to facilitate subsequent comparison of results across studies and potential pooling of data.

Roster

Platform Development Task Force

The goal for the Platform Development Task Force is to establish a roadmap for data platform development and a framework for assessing different platforms that can be used to support the automation of behavioral intervention trials.

Roster

Policy Evaluation Task Force

The Policy Evaluation Task Force is charged with strategic assessment of the landscape of food is medicine pilot and demonstration projects in state Medicaid programs, including the evaluation of Medicaid 1115 waivers.  A goal of this task force is to use this information to identify unanswered questions and use these insights to inform the initiative’s subsequent food is medicine research.

Roster

Field-Based Infrastructure Task Force

The Field-Based Infrastructure Task Force is charged with outlining essential elements to deliver food is medicine interventions within health care systems, with a goal of providing recommendations on tools  in testing and implementing these programs.

Roster

Cooperative Studies Group

The Cooperative Studies Group closely partners with each funded study, aiding with human-centered design, behavioral science considerations, planned implementation and community engagement, and providing supplemental statistical and cost effectiveness research expertise as needed. The task forces within this group review each funded protocol and provide composite reviews back to the teams highlighting major and minor suggestions for improvement as well as any “must dos.” Teams are then required to provide a “response to reviewers” with further discussion if requested by either reviewers of the project team. In addition, all teams participate in training in human-centered design through workshops and individual coaching of their project teams. The group is comprised of five task forces:

Behavioral Science Task Force Roster
Cost Effectiveness Task Force Roster
Human-Centered Design Task Force Roster
Statistics Task Force Roster
Community Engagement and Implementation Science Task Force Roster