Benjamin Linas

In a keynote interview at a March 25th University of Pennsylvania virtual conference on the impact of upcoming Medicaid funding changes for substance use disorder treatment programs, New York’s top addiction official warned that the sweeping federal changes could destabilize the nation’s addiction treatment system, forcing states into painful tradeoffs that may ultimately cost lives. Speaking at […]

Lead author Hana Zwick, a research data analyst at the Syndemics Lab, and colleagues published a new simulation modeling study in JAMA Network Open to understand the public health and economic outcomes of strategies that arrest, disperse, or house people who live in encampments and experience high-risk opioid use compared to the encampment status quo. […]

In a new article in Hepatology Communications, lead author and CHERISH Population Data & Modeling Core Director Benjamin Linas and colleagues report new economic analyses from MINMON, an AIDS Clinical Trial Group (ACTG 5360) study that used a minimal monitoring approach to provide treatment for chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV). Findings suggest that the simplified […]

The Syndemics Lab, led by CHERISH Population Data & Modeling Core Director Benjamin Linas, uses simulation models to investigate population-level outcomes, costs, and cost-effectiveness of interventions and care delivery models to treat HIV, hepatitis C virus (HCV), and substance use disorder. In addition to their core research, the Boston-based team collaborates with real-world decision-makers to […]

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) testing guidelines were updated in 2020 to provide universal, one-time screening for adults ages 18 through 79 and during each pregnancy. This departure from their 2013 recommendation not only aims to improve early detection of HCV across age groups but also acknowledges pregnancy as a critical period for diagnosing and treating […]

Overdose is the leading cause of death among people with opioid use disorder (OUD) who are experiencing homelessness. Innovative care models that meet this population outside of office-based settings can improve access to buprenorphine, a medication for treating OUD, and avert fatal overdoses. In this study, Avik Chatterjee, lead author and addiction specialist at Boston […]

More than 4 million people in the U.S. live with a hepatitis C virus (HCV) diagnosis. However, as of 2022, fewer than one-third of individuals infected with HCV have been cured due to barriers related to high direct-acting antiviral (DAA) pricing and the steps involved in determining someone’s degree of liver disease or fibrosis. In […]

At the start of summer, we welcomed undergraduate students Noah Jenkins and Simrun Rao. As rising seniors, Jenkins and Rao have been selected as part of the Summer Undergraduate Mentored Research (SUMR) Program at University of Pennsylvania and the NIDA Summer Research Internship Program. Working alongside CHERISH investigators Zachary Meisel at the Leonard Davis Institute […]

Children with perinatally acquired hepatitis C virus (HCV) are now eligible to receive direct-acting antivirals (DAAs), a highly effective treatment for HCV, as early as the age of 3. Despite existing studies demonstrating DAA’s high efficacy and tolerance among adults and children between the 3 and 12 years old, there has been low uptake due […]

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 […]

“What will it take to end HIV in the United States?” is a pressing question posed by public health officials, researchers, and policymakers alike. Population Data & Modeling Core Director Benjamin Linas seeks to answer that question by amplifying notable results from a simulation modeling study published by researchers at Johns Hopkins. In an editorial issued in the Annals of […]

Medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD) are evidence-based treatments that help people reduce or stop using opioids. However, high discontinuation rates of MOUD pose a barrier to reducing opioid-related overdoses. Extended-release buprenorphine (XR-BUP) is a relatively new MOUD, approved in late 2017, that has the potential to increase retention because of its monthly dosing schedule. Currently, there is […]