HEALing Communities Study

Revised November 2018

Applications Due Soon!

Application due dates for the HEALing Communities Study are approaching! See below for key information:

Key Dates:

Application Deadline: December 11, 2018
Anticipated Review: January-February 2019
Advisory Council Review: May 2019

Funding Opportunity Announcements:
Research Sites: RFA-DA-19-016
Data Coordinating Center: RFA-DA-19-017

NOTE: NIH intends to fund up to 3 Research Sites and 1 Data Coordinating Center. Only 1 application per organization for each FOA will be accepted. In addition, NIH will only fund ONE Research Site application per state.

Technical Assistance Webinar

This meeting was held on October 3, 2018 from 1-2:30 pm - Technical Assistance Webinar for Researchers Interested in the HEALing Communities Funding Opportunities

Goal

To determine if an integrated set of evidence-based interventions within healthcare, behavioral health, justice systems, and community organizations can work to decrease opioid overdoses and to prevent and treat opioid use disorders.

A great tragedy of the opioid crisis is that so many effective tools already exist but are not being deployed effectively in communities that need them. Only a fraction of people with opioid use disorders receive any treatment, and of those, less than half receive the medications that are universally acknowledged to be the standard of care, or they receive treatment for too short a duration. NIDA will work with the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration to launch a multisite implementation research study to identify the ideal sequence and duration of treatment within communities. Called the HEALing Communities Study, it will look at the effectiveness of a coordinated continuum of care in up to three targeted states. The studies will test the integration of prevention, overdose treatment, and medically assisted treatment in a coordinated array of settings--primary care; emergency departments; specialty care, including prenatal care, infectious disease, and behavioral health; the criminal justice system; and other community settings.

HEALing Communities Study FAQs - 11/08/18
The HEALing Communities Study: Using Science to Address the Opioid Crisis (Blog post by Dr. Nora Volkow and Dr. Francis Collins) - 9/19/18
Update on the HEALing Communities Initiative (PDF, 110KB) - 9/5/18
Presentation by Redonna Chandler, Ph.D., Director, AIDS Research Program to the National Advisory Council on Drug Abuse

Funding Announcements

Request for Information

Request for Information (RFI) for the HEALing Communities Study - 6/29/18
RFI Summary - 9/19/18

Project Staff

Name	Title	Phone
Redonna Chandler, Ph.D.	Director	301-402-1919
Jennifer Villani, Ph.D. M.P.H.	Associate Director	301-827-4095
Keisher Highsmith, DrPH	Program Official	301-443-6504
Jenena Brissett	Program Assistant	301-827-2405

Biographies

Redonna Chandler, Ph.D., Director
(301) 402-1919

Dr. Redonna Chandler is the Director of the HEALing Communities Study at NIDA. She brings extensive scientific and organizational leadership, and recently served as the Deputy Director for the Division of Clinical Innovation at the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) providing leadership to the Clinical and Translational Science Awards Program. Dr. Chandler has been at the NIH since 2002, serving in positions of increasing responsibility and leadership at the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Prior to joining NCATS, she served as the Acting Director for the NIDA’s Division of Epidemiology, Services, and Prevention Research and Chief of the Services Research Branch. She worked for the Department of Justice from 1996-2002, directing large drug treatment programs. Her areas of expertise include research with individuals involved with the criminal justice system, clinical trials, improving adherence to drug abuse treatment and HIV care, health services research, and implementing evidence based treatments into routine practice settings. She has authored numerous articles and book chapters. She earned her Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Kentucky and is a licensed psychologist. As a clinician she has treated those struggling with addiction use disorder and serious mental health issues.
Jennifer Villani, Ph.D. M.P.H., Associate Director
(301) 827-4095

Dr. Jennifer Villani is the Associate Director of the HEALing Communities Study. She comes to NIDA from the NIH Office of Disease Prevention (ODP) where she conducted a wide range of research activities to advance disease prevention. She developed and tested a new method for portfolio analysis that utilizes machine learning to characterize NIH prevention research in areas including substance use and health services. In addition, Dr. Villani is the lead NIH representative to the Healthy People Federal Interagency Workgroup, where she oversees and coordinates NIH participation in the development of the Healthy People 2030 initiative. Prior to joining ODP, Dr. Villani worked 9 years at the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS), where she coordinated an international consortium of investigators developing computational models to understand infectious disease dynamics. She also served as the NIGMS Planning and Evaluation Officer for a year and conducted portfolio analyses and program evaluations in infectious disease modeling, multiscale modeling, and systems biology. She earned her Ph.D. in Health Services Research from the University of Maryland, College Park, and her Master of Public Health in Epidemiology and Biostatistics from the George Washington University. Her research foci include preventive medicine, substance use prevention, patient-provider communication, health literacy, and health care disparities.
Keisher Highsmith, DrPH, Program Official
(301) 443-6504

Dr. Keisher Highsmith comes to NIH/NIDA from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). Dr. Highsmith is a Scientist/Epidemiologist in the U.S. Public Health Service and has been a public health practitioner for over 14 years. Dr. Highsmith’s tenure at HRSA included serving as Deputy Director in the Bureau of Primary Health Care. Her portfolio consisted of special initiatives and technical assistance investments that supports HRSA funded health centers with clinical quality practice transformation and service expansion activities such as mental health and substance abuse. Dr. Highsmith also served as the Director of Special Initiatives and Program Planning and Evaluation in the Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB). She provided scientific leadership and support for the development and implementation of innovative, multidisciplinary programs in the area of maternal, child and women’s health. Dr. Highsmith established The Maternal Health Initiative (MHI) which is a comprehensive national strategy to improve women’s health and ensure the quality and safety of care. She also conceptualized, launched, and led The Alliance for Innovation on Maternal Health: Improving Maternal Health and Safety which is a national initiative to reduce maternal morbidity and mortality through quality improvement of patient safety in birthing facilities. Dr. Highsmith served as a subject matter expert on maternal/women’s health on HRSA State MCH Title V Block Grant Transformation Steering Committee and Chaired the State Needs Assessment Workgroup. As a result, this historical program portfolio now include four (4) national outcome and performance measures focused on women and maternal health. Dr. Highsmith received her Doctorate in Public Health from Morgan State University.

Planning Meeting

On June 18, 2018, the National Institutes of Health hosted the HEALing Communities Study Design Workshopto solicit feedback from scientific experts, state partners, federal partners, and other key stakeholders. This meeting was videocast.