Back in Person and Taking a Bite of the Big Apple
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 […]
Sharing Your Research for Maximum Impact
In today’s digital and media landscape, there are several ways to disseminate your health economics research after its publication. From our experience, writing social media, news posts, and policy briefs has allowed us to convey study findings from different angles, reach new audiences, and inform key decision makers. As you are preparing your next journal […]
Stigma and Sluggish Bureaucracy Block Treatment for Stimulant Use Disorder
So, imagine there’s a runaway epidemic of overdose deaths that involve non-opioid drugs and that we’ve had an evidence-based therapy for this unique addiction for the last forty years—but for reasons largely grounded in legislators’ and the public’s visceral disdain for people who use substances, we have refused to nationally recognize or widely implement this […]
Incentivizing Recovery: Payment, Policy, and Implementation of Contingency Management
On January 19th, 2024, CHERISH and the University of Pennsylvania’s Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics (LDI), co-hosted a virtual convening titled Incentivizing Recovery: Payment, Policy, and Implementation of Contingency Management. Contingency management is a proven and promising treatment for specific substance use disorders, especially stimulant use disorder. However, significant gaps in knowledge regarding the […]
Using Financial Incentives to Treat Stimulant Use Disorders
Stimulants are involved in a substantial and growing percentage of the more than 100,000 overdose deaths in the United States each year. Methamphetamine and cocaine are increasingly present in overdoses involving fentanyl—fueling what has been called the “fourth wave” of the opioid overdose crisis. Unlike opioid use disorder, there are no FDA-approved medications to treat […]
Many State Medicaid Programs Still Require Prior Authorization for Buprenorphine Treatment for Opioid Use Disorder
The opioid epidemic has been an ongoing public health crisis in the United States, claiming countless lives and devastating communities. Buprenorphine, a highly effective medication for the treatment of opioid use disorders, holds the potential to save lives. However, a significant hurdle exists in the form of prior authorization requirements, which are associated with lower access to […]
LDI Experts Analyze the New U.S. Plan to Target Xylazine-Laced Fentanyl
The lethal mixture of xylazine and fentanyl, also known as Tranq dope, may sound unfamiliar to many, but its impact is harming people who use drugs nationwide. Xylazine, approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for veterinary use as a sedative, has become a major component in the illicit drug trade. When consumed by humans, xylazine causes […]
Initiation of Hepatitis C Treatment Low Among Medicaid Recipients
While there are highly effective treatments for the hepatitis C virus (HCV), only 1 in 5 Medicaid enrollees diagnosed with HCV started treatment, according to a retrospective study led by researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine and Cornell University’s Ithaca campus. The findings revealed that treatment uptake rates were even lower among people under 30, women, […]
Intern Spotlight: Valeria Arango, Benicio Beatty, Ameya Komaragiri, Carlos Ponce de Leon Mendez, and Ella Salim
During the peak hour of a July summer day, CHERISH colleagues and interns from Boston Medical Center logged onto Zoom while investigators and staff in New York City filled a conference room located on the Upper East Side at Weill Cornell Medicine. Three minutes past twelve, Caroline Savitsky, program manager in the Section of Infectious […]
CHERISH Welcomes Pilot Grant Recipients to Advance the Treatment of Substance Use Disorders, HCV, and HIV
Meet the ninth cohort of early-career investigators from the states of California, Texas, and Washington. CHERISH awarded each investigator up to $20,000 for a pilot study that focuses on conducting health economics research in substance use, hepatitis C virus (HCV), and HIV. This year, CHERISH also encouraged applicants to integrate drug overdose prevention, the syndemics […]
Economic benefits of substance use disorder treatment: A systematic literature review of economic evaluation studies from 2003 to 2021
The economic burden of substance use disorder (SUD) is significant. It encompasses clinical and societal costs such as health care and social services, criminal justice resources, loss of productivity, and premature mortality, and is estimated to cost more than $700 billion per year in the United States. To understand the gravity of these economic costs, […]
Penn LDI & CHERISH Launch New Online Communications Training Course for Academic Researchers
The University of Pennsylvania’s Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics (LDI), which since 2019 has been offering the Amplify[at] LDI in-person communications course to help academic researchers translate and disseminate their findings more widely, has developed and just launched a free, online course providing an introduction to the same topics. The new training resource is […]
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