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June 19, 2018

LDI Awarded Grant to Study Payment Policies for Opioid Use Disorder

A Penn LDI-Shatterproof Collaboration The University of Pennsylvania’s Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics (LDI) has received a grant from the Laura and John Arnold Foundation (LJAF), in partnership with Shatterproof, to study the logistics and policies related to the public and private insurance industry’s coverage of opioid use disorder treatment. LDI is Penn’s hub of […]

June 8, 2018 Profile Feature

Methodology Consultation Success Story: Dr. Jennifer McNeely

Hospital-based consultation services that link inpatients with opioid use disorders to treatment offer a unique opportunity to narrow the treatment gap that results in only a minority of individuals with opioid use disorders receiving evidence-based treatment.  Dr. Jennifer McNeely recently received R01 funding from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) to study the Consult for […]

May 22, 2018 Research Highlights

Implementation of a nationwide health economic consultation service to assist substance use researchers: Lessons learned

CHERISH investigators recently published findings and lessons learned from the implementation of CHERISH’s nationwide consultation service. The CHERISH Consultation Service is free to researchers, regardless of affiliation, whose work aligns with CHERISH’s mission and who would like to incorporate an economic analysis into their research. Interested researchers complete and submit a consultation request form online and are subsequently connected […]

May 9, 2018 Profile Feature

Tyler Bartholomew and Shashi Kapadia, MD, MS Awarded Fourth Cycle of CHERISH Pilot Grant Funding

Tyler Bartholomew is a doctoral student in the Department of Public Health Sciences at the University of Miami. Prior to entering the doctoral program, he was the project manager for an HIV and HCV testing, linkage to care, and treatment program at five federally-qualified health centers in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania as part of his AmeriCorps service. […]

April 27, 2018 Policy Watch

Dentists Tackle Opioid Epidemic

Last month, the American Dental Association (ADA) announced a new policy on opioid prescription. This is the latest in a series of statements issued by the ADA in response to the prominent role of dentistry in the opioid epidemic. In addition to mandatory continuing education and prescription limits, the ADA indicated its support for “dentists […]

April 25, 2018 Profile Feature

Methodology Consultation Success Story: Dr. Marcus Bachhuber

Between 1999 and 2015, the annual sales of opioid analgesics in the US quadrupled to about $8 billion dollars. In an effort to address over-prescribing of opioid analgesics, Dr. Marcus Bachhuber recently received a career development award (K-award) from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) to implement a default opioid prescribing system in the electronic health […]

April 4, 2018 Collaborations

CHERISH Hosts Introduction to Economic Evaluation Training in March

On March 19, researchers from institutions across the country joined CHERISH leaders Bruce Schackman, Kathryn McCollister, Benjamin Linas and Sean Murphy for a daylong CHERISH introductory training to economic evaluations. Dr. Schackman began the day by introducing CHERISH to the attendees, who represented more than 25 institutions across New England, the Midwest, the Mid-Atlantic, the South […]

February 27, 2018 Research Highlights

Two New Publications Address Expanding Access to HCV Care Among People Who Inject Drugs

Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) is one of the leading causes of infectious disease deaths in the United States. Injection drug use is a common route of HCV transmission and the annual number of reported cases continues to rise due to the opioid epidemic. Previous HCV treatment regimens had severe side effects and limited efficacy, but […]

February 15, 2018 Profile Feature

From C-Section and Knee Arthroscopy to Opioid Dependency: How Big A Problem?

Is it possible that the widespread prescribing of excessive amounts of opioids for C-section and knee arthroscopy patients is responsible for producing a significant number of opioid dependencies? That question is the subject of Perelman School of Medicine postdoctoral researcher Benjamin Ukert‘s (above, left) new pilot project funded by the Center for Health Economics of Treatment Interventions for […]

February 5, 2018 Research Highlights

Association between Electronic Medical Record Implementation of Default Opioid Prescription Quantities and Prescribing Behavior in Two Emergency Departments

Key Findings Setting a low quantity of opioid tablets as the default option in electronic medical record prescribing orders may “nudge” clinicians to prescribe fewer opioids. When two emergency departments implemented a 10-tablet default instead of a manual entry, the proportion of 10-tablet prescriptions written more than doubled, from 20.6% to 43.3%. Conversely, 20-tablet prescriptions […]

January 22, 2018 Research Highlights

Commercial Insurer Success in Increasing Adoption of Pharmacotherapy by Substance Use Disorder Treatment Programs

An estimated 13 million people in the US report non-medical use of prescription opioids in the previous year, of whom 2.5 million have opioid use disorders that require treatment. Only 10% of those with an opioid use disorder receive any type of specialty substance use treatment. Even fewer have access to pharmacotherapy including methadone maintenance, buprenorphine, or […]

January 10, 2018 Research Highlights

CDC Guidelines Change for HCV Testing in Baby Boomers: Success in Affecting Clinical Practice

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a communicable disease that could lead to liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma affecting baby boomers and all people who inject drugs (PWID) in particular. There are over 19,000 HCV-related deaths in the United States annually. HCV can be cured using direct-acting antivirals that can also reverse HCV-related liver injury. In 2012, the […]

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