A joint team from Weill Cornell Medicine and the University of Miami’s Miller School of Medicine has secured a $4 million grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) for a five-year health economics research project. The study will focus on the economic aspects of substance use disorder treatments and overdose prevention strategies, specifically targeting individuals within the U.S. criminal-legal system.
The inadequacy of interventions for people with substance use disorders in the criminal-legal system often results in severe health and behavioural issues, including a high risk of overdose upon release. Health economics researchers are tasked with evaluating and comparing the economic value of available interventions across various criminal-legal settings.
This grant will facilitate the creation of the Criminal-Legal Economic Analysis & Resource (CLEAR) Center, part of the broader Justice Community Overdose Innovation Network (JCOIN). Supported by NIDA since 2019, JCOIN, now in its second funding phase as JCOIN-II, focuses on developing and testing strategies for substance use disorder care within the criminal-legal system.
“The CLEAR Center will not only generate rigorous economic evidence regarding which care strategies deliver the greatest value, but also develop tools and resources that administrators and policymakers can use to identify strategic and sustainable investments,” stated Dr. Sean Murphy, co-principal investigator at the CLEAR Center and professor at Weill Cornell Medicine.
The U.S. criminal-legal system, comprising police stations, courts, jails, prisons, and other community supervision contexts, operates under various constraints. Traditionally, individuals with substance use disorders entering this system face untreated withdrawal and minimal assistance upon release. JCOIN aims to integrate effective, evidence-based care at every level of this complex system.
Drs. Murphy and Kathryn McCollister, co-principal investigator and professor at the University of Miami, will provide health economics support for JCOIN-II. Their contributions include cost-effectiveness analyses, trial design advice, and the development of cost-benefit and budget-impact calculators for decision-makers and treatment providers.
The researchers’ extensive experience with substance use disorder-related health economics research, particularly through their collaboration with CHERISH, a NIDA-funded centre of excellence, contributed to securing the grant. CHERISH’s recent $10.9 million funding renewal underscores its ongoing role in addressing substance use disorder, HIV, and hepatitis C virus infections.
