News

University of Pennsylvania Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine and LDI Senior Fellow Zachary Meisel, MD, has received a $2.1 million funding award from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI). The award will fund a 36-month comparative effectiveness study of enhanced opioid risk communication strategies for pain management following acute care. Meisel’s research team includes  LDI Senior Fellows Carolyn […]

Two weeks ago, the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) announced changes in buprenorphine treatment regulations that would allow certain licensed physicians to provide buprenorphine to up to 275 patients. This is an increase from the 100 patient limit set forth by the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) Reauthorization Act of 2006. The change comes after […]

Following approval by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), probuphine will become the latest medication-assisted treatment (MAT) option to treat opioid use disorders in the United States. Probuphine is a subdermal implant that consists of four one-inch rods that deliver a daily dose of 8 mg of buprenorphine, an opioid agonist that staves off […]

In a recent panel discussion at Penn, Leana Wen, MD, MSc, Baltimore City Health Commissioner, spoke about the role of public health in Baltimore and how academic institutions can work with public health departments. I spoke with Dr. Wen before her panel about how policymakers use economic evidence, and how we can make evidence more useful to […]

Pilot grant awardee Dr. Yuhua Bao was invited to present her recent publication, “Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs Are Associated with Sustained Reductions in Opioid Prescribing by Physicians,” at the Health Affairs Issue Briefing on Behavioral Health in Washington, D.C on June 7, 2016. Dr. Bao’s presentation centered on her publication in the June 2017 issue of Health Affairs and is […]

As overdose deaths soar, the opioid epidemic has captured the attention of the White House, Congress, and the public. In a recent survey, about 44% of people say that they personally know someone who has been addicted to prescription painkillers. Increasingly, we see addiction as a health problem rather than as a problem to be solved […]

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently issued new regulations for electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) including vaporizers and e-cigarettes. The regulations will raise the purchasing age of ENDS to 18 years to align with cigarettes, require all ENDS manufacturers to submit chemical and manufacturing information for FDA review, which will result in new […]

According to a new report from the CDC, in 2014 one person died from hepatitis C (HCV) every 27 minutes, totaling 19,659 Americans in one year. The number of people dying from HCV surpassed the total number of deaths from 60 other infectious diseases combined, including HIV. Although lifesaving, the high cost of current treatments for […]

Kit Delgado, MD, MS Dr. Delgado’s pilot grant will assess physician-level variability in opioid drug prescribing practices for six specific diagnoses across multiple specialties. Dr. Delgrado will use the Optum Cliniformatics DataMart national private insurance claims database to estimate excess prescription opioids prescribed by state and nationally, and calculate the resulting excess cost to the […]

CHERISH director Dr. Bruce Schackman presented at the National Drug Abuse Treatment Clinical Trials Network (CTN) Annual Scientific Meeting on April 12, 2016. The CTN is a NIDA-funded multi-site research project to determine the effectiveness of behavioral, pharmacological, and integrated treatment interventions across a broad range of community-based treatment settings and diversified patient populations. Dr. Schackman’s presentation […]

Dr. Alysse Wurcel is an infectious disease specialist and faculty member at Tufts University School of Medicine with a focus in HIV and hepatitis C (HCV) infection whose research interests closely align with her clinical work. Dr. Wurcel’s research is focused on the treatment of HCV in people who inject drugs (PWID), people in the criminal […]

Dr. McCollister is an Associate Professor and Health Economist in the Department Public Health Sciences at the University Of Miami Miller School Of Medicine. She is the Co-Director of the CHERISH Methodology Core. This interview discusses her interest in substance use health economics and her most recent publication “Cost Effectiveness analysis of a continuing care […]