Understanding and Reducing Inequities in Substance Use Treatment

Data from the United States National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH, 2021) indicate that while certain racial/ethnic minoritized populations may have equivalent or lower rates of substance use disorders (SUD) compared to White people, evidence suggests that once developed, and given structural inequities and barriers, racial/ethnic minoritized people may suffer more deleterious consequences…

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Design Considerations in Embedded Pragmatic Trials: Separating Rigor from Idolatry

This presentation will consider specific considerations in the design and implementation of embedded pragmatic trials, including: eligibility criteria, unit of allocation, method of allocation, standardization of “active” interventions, standardization of “control” interventions, blinding, and analytic strategy. For each of these design decisions, investigators must focus on the specific study question and consider scientific rigor, practical…

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Innovating Substance Use Disorder Treatment at Scale

Across medicine clinical innovations take years to disseminate widely into practice, while some best practices in addiction medicine fail to ever gain widespread adoption. This presentation describes two private medical practices (Groups Recover Together and Affect Therapeutics) which have brought underutilized and evidence-based interventions to scale across the United States. The presentation will focus on…

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Proposing and Applying the Observational-Implementation Hybrid Approach

We recently proposed the observational-implementation hybrid approach, or the incorporation of implementation science elements into observational studies in order to collect information that will allow for anticipation, estimation, and/or inference about the effects of interventions and implementation strategies. We describe this approach, including examples of how we are applying it to an ongoing observational study…

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The Economics of Efficiency in Implementation Science

Efficiency is upheld as a cornerstone of high-quality care. Unfortunately, the term efficiency is used in different contexts, creating substantial confusion about what it means. In this talk, I define efficiency as it relates to the delivery of health care. I then review different frameworks for measuring it and common strategies that can be used…

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Development of an integrated implementation determinant framework for shared learning to promote health equity

As evidence-based innovations (EBIs) are translated into clinical and community settings, implementation determinant frameworks can help understand the factors that impede or facilitate implementation outcomes. Use of different frameworks across implementation initiatives can impede shared learning. To develop a framework for shared learning in the DECIPHeR Alliance (decipheralliance.org), we conducted a crosswalk of three determinant…

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Bridging policy research and implementation science

Policy implementation is a key but often-ignored aspect of policy effectiveness. Public policy research typically considers the effects of having versus not having a policy on outcomes, without considering whether and how the policy was implemented – even though the effects of policies on their intended outcome depend upon degree of implementation. Experimental approaches to…

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Prosocial Behaviors as a Marker of Health and Enhancer of Well-Being

Drawing upon a strengths-based, cultural assets perspective, I will present evidence on the growth properties of prosocial behaviors and assert the need to incorporate prosocial behaviors as a marker of health and well being. The presentation will focus on risk and protective correlates and consequences of prosocial behaviors in U.S. Latine youth. Implications for prevention…

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