Dr. French is an assistant professor in the Department of Family and Community Health at Penn Nursing. With a background as a registered nurse in a federally qualified health center providing opioid use disorder treatment, Dr. French witnessed firsthand how community-based care for opioid use disorder is often disrupted when patients are hospitalized. This experience has shaped her research, which focuses on improving care and outcomes for people with opioid and other substance use disorders. While hospitals have made progress in offering evidence-based medications like buprenorphine and methadone to patients with opioid use disorder, they continue to struggle with effectively engaging patients who are not interested in treatment. Dr. French’s current work is focused on optimizing treatment for hospitalized patients with substance use disorders, emphasizing the integration of harm reduction strategies and the implementation of evidence-based interventions.

During the C-DIAS Fellowship, Dr. French seeks to expand her understanding of rigorous methods in implementation science to improve public access to a high quality of addiction treatment. Specifically, she seeks training about leading effectiveness-implementation hybrid trials, which she hopes to do with a harm reduction conversation guide and implementation strategy bundle that she is developing.