Inaugural CHERISH Pilot Grants Awarded
Karen Lasser, MD, MPH and Yuhua Bao, PhD Awarded Inaugural CHERISH Pilot Grants.
Karen Lasser, MD, MPH
Dr. Lasser’s pilot grant proposes to evaluate economic and health outcomes for a primary care-based HCV treatment program in a patient-centered medical home. The treatment model is based on the chronic care model including a multidisciplinary team with physician, nursing, social worker, pharmacy technician and pharmacist. The team works together to provide evaluation for the patient, HCV education, social support, adherence support, medication teaching visits, and prior authorization to facilitate patient progress through the treatment cascade. To evaluate program success, Dr. Lasser and colleagues plan to measure and report HCV treatment program services utilization, health outcomes achieved (including SVR) and conduct a budget impact analysis to address the scale-up and sustainability of program implementation. Dr. Lasser is an Associate Professor of Medicine at the Boston University School of Medicine. Dr. Lasser’s areas of research include quality of care, health disparities, health policy, smoking cessation, and practices in primary care to reduce prescription drug abuse.
Yuhua Bao, PhD
Dr. Bao’s pilot grant will examine the impact of Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (PDMP) implementation on opioid prescribing in ambulatory care settings using National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NAMCS) and the Medicaid Drug Utilization Data (MDUD). Dr. Bao and colleagues will examine trends in prescribing opiates in ambulatory settings across states pre-/post-implementation of PDMPs. The investigators will also examine the budget impact of PDMP policies on Medicaid spending for buprenorphine and naltrexone treatments as an indicator of change in medication-assisted treatment for opioid dependence. Dr. Bao is an Associate Professor of Healthcare Policy & Research at Weill Cornell Medicine. Trained as a health economist, she specializes in quantitative health services research and has recently initiated health economic research in the field of substance use.