Funded Pilot

In our new study in BMJ Open, we show that in 2015-2019 more than 70% of U.S. opioid-naive patients received an opioid prescription after knee arthroscopy. They received an average of 40 tablets, despite recent studies showing most patients end up taking less than 5 tablets. The take-home message? Despite recent attention to opioid stewardship, we find wide variation […]

An opioid overdose is significantly more than an isolated event. Patients who present to the emergency department (ED) with overdose have a 6 percent risk of dying in the following year. As with other high-risk acute conditions, we expect patients who survive overdose to receive evidence-based treatment after leaving the hospital. Whether the overdose was due to prescription […]

Ali Jalali, PhD Dr. Ali Jalali is a Postdoctoral Associate in the Department of Population Health Sciences at Weill Cornell Medical College. He completed his doctorate in economics at the University of Utah. His current research focuses on economic evaluations of interventions for substance use disorders and related conditions. His pilot grant will examine healthcare […]

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 […]

Katherine Wen is a doctoral student in the Department of Policy Analysis at Cornell University. Ms. Wen is working with CHERISH Research Affiliate and Cycle 1 Pilot Grant recipient, Dr. Yuhua Bao, to assess the effects of state policies and practices aimed at improving prescriber use of Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs (PDMPs) on opioid prescriptions […]

As the country faces an unprecedented opioid epidemic, there’s an active national conversation about how inappropriate prescribing contributes to chronic opioid use, misuse, and addiction. Evidence is rapidly evolving to inform the policy debate, especially regarding best practices for prescribing in acutely painful conditions, like an injury or surgery, but the evidence is less clear […]

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. […]

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 […]

In collaboration with colleagues at the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH), Dr. Czarina Behrends (above, right) will assess naloxone distribution patterns, outcomes and required resources in New York City. She will use these data to develop a model for optimal allocation of those resources in order to prevent overdoses. Her project will […]

The danger of that first prescription “Just in case,” the oral surgeon said, as he prescribed the opioid hydrocodone for my 17-year-old son, who just had his wisdom teeth out. “But you might try Motrin first,” he added. Not knowing what the next hours, or days, would bring, we filled the prescription for 20 pills. […]

Pilot grant awardee Dr. Karen Lasser and her team have developed an intervention to screen, link and treat patients with hepatitis C (HCV) in the primary care setting. As the founding medical director for HCV treatment in primary care, Dr. Lasser was motivated to do a budget impact analysis of their intervention to analyze whether the […]

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 […]