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March 8, 2024 Research Highlights

Surgeons Are Closer to Predicting Which Patients Need Post-Surgery Opioids—and Which Ones Don’t

Opioids are routinely prescribed to patients after a surgery—whether they use them or not. A new study, led by LDI Senior Fellow Anish Agarwal will help tailor prescribing so patients get the right amount of opioid medications; not too little and not too much. Unused opioids are a particular problem. Opioid misuse can start when extra tablets […]

March 8, 2024 Research Highlights

Chart of the Day: Rise in Patients with Opioid Use Disorder Leaving Hospital Prematurely

LDI Senior and Associate Fellows Ashish Thakrar, Margaret (Maggie) Lowenstein, Ryan Greysen, and M. Kit Delgado found that more people with opioid use disorder are leaving the hospital prematurely (or before medically advised), compared to marginal increases for individuals admitted for other reasons. In the study, “Trends in Before Medically Advised Discharges for Patients with Opioid Use Disorder, 2016-2020,” […]

March 8, 2024 Collaborations

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 […]

February 29, 2024 Collaborations

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 […]

February 21, 2024 Policy Watch

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 […]

Grid image of moderators and speakers who took part in the convening.
February 8, 2024 Collaborations

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 […]

January 11, 2024 Policy Watch

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 […]

August 23, 2023 Policy Watch

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 […]

August 22, 2023 Policy Watch

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 […]

August 4, 2023 Research Highlights

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, […]

August 2, 2023 Profile Feature

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 […]

July 26, 2023 Profile Feature

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 […]

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