Serving as a national resource for payment and delivery system reform for substance use disorder treatment

We're thrilled to announce the renewal of our Brandeis-Harvard NIDA Center to Improve System Performance for Substance Use Disorder Treatment, a partnership of the Heller School's Institute for Behavioral Health, part of the Schneider Institutes for Health Policy and Research, and Harvard Medical School's Department of Health Care Policy. With leadership by Sharon Reif (Brandeis) and Haiden Huskamp (Harvard) that builds on Founding Director Connie Horgan's long tenure as PI, and an outstanding team of collaborators, the Center will advance our understanding of SUD treatment delivery and payment systems. The renewal Center brings a focus on low-barrier access to care, diverse populations, stakeholder engagement, and supporting early career investigators.
Funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), the Brandeis-Harvard SPIRE Center fills a critical public health need to better understand how to improve performance of the delivery system for treatment of substance use disorders (SUD). The Center brings together the collective expertise of Brandeis and Harvard researchers, using research on payment methods and service delivery organization to synergistically expand the research base, ensure SUD treatment services are included in efforts to improve quality and reduce cost of health care services, and inform policy decisions that will profoundly affect the cost, quality and availability of SUD treatment services.

“The healthcare delivery system is changing extremely rapidly, and we want to make sure that treatment for people with substance use disorders has a place at the table and is part of the innovation that’s happening, and that we build the research portfolio that supports these innovations, such as payment, financing and quality of care.”
- Constance Horgan, Founding Director