ResearchProjects

For the first time in decades, U.S. law makers are considering methadone policy reforms that could significantly change the landscape of opioid use disorder treatment, but uncertainty remains about which changes will lead to the greatest health benefits, while minimizing unintended harms.

Using New York State as a case study, the project will use an agent-based modeling approach to simulate four alternative methadone treatment policy scenarios currently being considered in U.S. policy discussions, and estimate their respective impact on population-level rates of methadone initiation and six-month retention, fatal and non-fatal opioid overdose, and racial/ethnic and urban/rural disparities in these outcomes. This work will inform and promote evidence-based policies that can reduce overdose and improve population health.