Zachary Meisel

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

A recent study in Health Affairs by CHERISH Research Affiliate Dr. Yuhua Bao and CHERISH investigators Dr. Zachary Meisel and Dr. Bruce Schackman examined the impact of prescription drug monitoring program policies on high-risk opioid prescriptions. Prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMPs) are statewide databases of controlled substances dispensed at retail pharmacies. Currently, all states and Washington D.C. except Missouri […]

Key Findings Setting a low quantity of opioid tablets as the default option in electronic medical record prescribing orders may “nudge” clinicians to prescribe fewer opioids. When two emergency departments implemented a 10-tablet default instead of a manual entry, the proportion of 10-tablet prescriptions written more than doubled, from 20.6% to 43.3%. Conversely, 20-tablet prescriptions […]

In the opening plenary panel of the CHERISH (Center for Health Economics of Treatment Interventions for Substance Use Disorder, HCV and HIV) conference on evidence-based policy and practice are (l to r) Daniel Polsky, PhD, moderator and Executive Director of the University of Pennsylvania’s Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics (LDI); Tom McLellan, PhD, Chairman of the Board and […]

The opioid epidemic is a national problem, but solutions may be local. In Philadelphia, the Mayor’s Task Force to Combat the Opioid Epidemic recently released a report with 18 recommendations for a “comprehensive and coordinated plan to reduce opioid use disorder and its associated morbidity and mortality.” The report focuses on Philadelphia, but draws on data […]

The Center for Health Economics of Treatment Interventions for Substance Use Disorders, HCV, and HIV (CHERISH) was profiled at the Liver Meeting® 2016 in Boston, MA. The Center’s mission is to develop and disseminate health economic research on healthcare utilization, health outcomes, and health-related behaviors that informs substance use disorder treatment policy and HCV and […]

Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf on Thursday announced the launch of a new Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (PDMP) designed to log and analyze every prescription for opioids and other controlled substances dispensed anywhere in the state. The new web-based computer program is Pennsylvania’s latest tool in the battle to lower the body count of prescription drug […]

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 […]

The high costs of treating the more than 7 million people with a substance use disorder may be daunting to public and private payers. The costs of not treating them may be even higher, especially if you consider the costs of failing to screen for and treat HIV and hepatitis C in this population. Sorting […]