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August 27, 2019 Policy Watch

Progress of “Netflix” subscription model negotiations to pay for HCV Treatment

In 2018, the state of Louisiana spent approximately $35 million to treat 1,000 individuals with chronic Hepatitis C Virus (HCV). Unfortunately, these 1,000 treated individuals comprise only about 1% of the state’s 90,000 individuals living with HCV, including about 39,000 covered by the state’s Medicaid program or prison system. Treating everyone would cost more than […]

July 30, 2019 Collaborations

CHERISH Investigators and Research Affiliates Support NIDA Justice Community Opioid Innovation Network (JCOIN)

On July 24 2019, the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) announced twelve grants totaling approximately $155 million for the Justice Community Opioid Innovation Network (JCOIN) as part of the greater NIDA HEAL initiative. JCOIN will establish a network of 10 clinical research institutions, a Methodology and Advanced Analytics Resource Center (MAARC), and a Coordination and Translation Center (CTC) that […]

July 26, 2019 Collaborations

CHERISH Workshop Addresses an ‘Unfortunate Reality’ of the Addiction Treatment Industry

Funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse and established in 2015, CHERISH is a five year collaboration of researchers from the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics (LDI) of the University of Pennsylvania, Weill Cornell Medical College, Boston Medical Center, and the University of Miami. Their work is focused on studying the health economics […]

July 16, 2019 Research Highlights

Care Integration of Hepatitis C and Opioid Use Disorder Treatment is Cost-Effective and Improves Health Outcomes

People who inject drugs (PWID) often become infected with HIV and hepatitis C virus (HCV). While hepatitis C can be successfully treated with medication, care is often fragmented and rarely integrated within one program or setting. Two recent studies by CHERISH researchers modeled economic and health outcomes for PWID and found evidence of synergistic benefits […]

July 10, 2019 Research Highlights

No Safe Dose for That First Opioid Prescription

LDI Senior Fellows Zack Meisel, Benjamin Sun, and colleagues have a striking and sobering chart in a recent Annals of Emergency Medicine article on initial opioid prescriptions in the emergency department. They tracked how many “opioid-naïve” patients (i.e., those without a record of opioid use in the previous year) had persistent or high-risk opioid prescription use in the subsequent […]

June 3, 2019 Research Highlights

Buprenorphine for Opioid Use Disorder Lowers Overdose Risk in Commercially Insured Individuals

“Medications for opioid use disorder saves lives.” That’s the title and conclusion of a recent report by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, based on a review of the scientific evidence. In a new study in Drug and Alcohol Dependence, CHERISH investigators Jake Morgan, Bruce Schackman and Benjamin Linas add to this evidence base by […]

May 20, 2019 Profile Feature

Angélica Meinhofer, Margaret Lowenstein and Rachel Epstein Awarded Fifth Cycle of CHERISH Pilot Grant Funding

Angélica Meinhofer, PhD Dr. Angélica Meinhofer is an Instructor in the Department of Healthcare Policy & Research at Weill Cornell Medical College. She completed her doctorate in Economics at Brown University and previously worked as a Research Economist at RTI International’s Behavioral Health Services, Policy and Economics Research Program where she designed and conducted evaluations […]

May 14, 2019 Research Highlights

Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome and the Opioid Crisis: Paying Attention to Social Context

As you likely continue to read in your local news or experience in your community, the United States is in the midst of a deadly drug overdose and addiction crisis. In fact, overdoses claimed the lives of 70,000 individuals in 2017—more than two-thirds of those overdoses were linked to opioids. While drug overdoses disproportionately affect young adults, there […]

April 19, 2019 Collaborations

NIH funds HEALing Communities Study in Four States

On April 18, the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) together with the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) announced research sites in four states will receive funding as part of the Helping to End Addiction Long-term (HEAL) Initiative HEALing Communities Study. Each state will engage stakeholders and researchers across 15 communities in their […]

April 5, 2019 Research Highlights

Using the 340B Drug Pricing Program to Support Primary Care-Based Hepatitis C Treatment in a Safety-Net Hospital Patient-Centered Medical Home

Over 2 million people in the US had chronic hepatitis C (HCV) infection during 2013- 2016, and HCV remains a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in the United States. Expanding HCV treatment in primary care would improve treatment access and follow-up but is resource intensive, requiring significant staff support. Using a budget impact analysis, a new study […]

March 15, 2019 Research Highlights

Starting Opioid Use Disorder Treatment in the Emergency Department: Physician-reported barriers and facilitators

Every day, we hear about the staggering toll of the opioid overdose crisis. This is particularly salient in Philadelphia, which has one of the highest overdose death rates among major U.S. cities. Despite effective medications for opioid use disorder, such as buprenorphine and methadone, few people receive treatment. The ongoing challenge is to expand access to these lifesaving treatments […]

March 7, 2019 Research Highlights

Strengthening Partnerships Between Substance Use Researchers and Policy Makers

Comprehensive evidence-based policy is crucial in combatting the substance use crisis. CHERISH Investigators from the University of Pennsylvania Leonard Davis Institute Zachary Meisel, Julia Mitchell, Daniel Polsky and Janet Weiner published a new study in Substance Abuse Treatment Prevention and Policy that describes how eighteen policy makers involved in the delivery of health services engage with substance […]

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