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Back in Person and Taking a Bite of the Big Apple

Wrapping up the 2023 Addiction Health Services Research Conference

By Bonnie Tse March 8, 2024
After two years of remote AHSR conferences, attendees gathered in the halls of the Verizon Executive Education Center on Roosevelt Island to present their latest research.

Over the course of three days, from October 18-20, 2023, the annual Addiction Health Services Research (AHSR) Conference brought over 300 attendees to Roosevelt Island in New York City to share new addiction research findings, learn about the field through pre-conference workshops, develop collaborative relationships, and support early-career and under-represented investigators.

“I am so proud of the AHSR 2023 host team, which included colleagues from CHERISH, the Department of Population Health Sciences at Weill Cornell Medicine, Brandeis Harvard SPIRE Center, and the Northeast and Caribbean Addiction Technology Transfer Center (ATTC) Network,” shared Bruce Schackman, director of the Center for Health Economics of Treatment Interventions for Substance Use Disorder, HCV, and HIV (CHERISH). “They pulled together with selflessness, relentless energy, and good cheer. I received many, many words of congratulations and I feel incredibly lucky to work with each of them,” Schackman added.

We welcomed Drs. Tanzeem Choudhury, PhD; Laura Kwako, PhD and Carlos Blanco, MD, PhD, MS; and Chinazo Cunningham, MD, MS, to lead plenary sessions on technological advances in digital behavior health, funding for substance use health services research, and improving access to addiction services in NY, respectively.

The annual conference brings together researchers, clinicians and treatment providers, policymakers, and research funders to focus on various aspects of addiction health services delivery, financing, and health impacts for populations at risk for, or living with substance use disorders (SUDs) and related conditions. While isolated aspects of substance misuse are improving—such as tobacco cessation and opioid prescribing practices—enormous service gaps persist that permit the ongoing negative impacts of risky and problematic substance use. The adverse effects disproportionately affect racial, ethnic, and gender minorities, as well as other disadvantaged populations and communities. This underscores the significance of prioritizing health disparities and health equity in addiction health services research.

From left to right: This year, we awarded the AHSR 2023 Early Career Investigator Awards to Courtney Nordeck, PhD; Erika Crable, PhD, MPH; Sarah Gutkind, MSPH; Jasmin Choi, MPH, MSW; Alex Rains; Aryn Phillips, PhD, MPH; and Adam Viera, PhD, MPH (not pictured). This award recognizes scholars with early achievements and exceptional promises for future contributions to health services research for substance use conditions.
From left to right: The finalists for AHSR Early Career Investigator Awards include Adam Vose-O'Neal, MA, MSW; Travis Donahoe, PhD, MPH; Peter Treitler, PhD, MSW; Huiru Dong, PhD, MSc; Samantha Young, MD (not pictured).
Colleagues and staff at CHERISH, the Department of Population Health Sciences at Weill Cornell Medicine, the Brandeis Harvard SPIRE Center, and the Northeast and Caribbean Addiction Technology Transfer Center Network (ATTC) are few of the many supporters and volunteers who made AHSR 2023 successful.

The research themes addressed during the conference have been captured as a detailed commentary in the Substance Use & Addiction Journal (SAj). Read more below.

The 2023 Addiction Health Services Research Conference: Back in Person and Taking a Bite of the Big Apple

Read the commentary.