Work Groups

Leaders of CHOSEN have founded seven workgroups that focus on critical and timely research in areas related to opioid and other substance use, mental health, and diversity, equity, and inclusion in these areas. Below are descriptions of each workgroup, their leading faculty, and their mission statements. All groups are actively engaged in a multitude of research projects, each of which has led to seminars, publications, grant funding, and collaborations. 

1. Equity and Inclusion (EI)
This working group is led by Professors Louisa Gilbert, Ph.D. and Elwin Wu, Ph.D., and focuses on advancing research methods and promoting research that directly addresses health disparities and other inequities along the spectrum of prevention to treatment/recovery  continuum for substance use disorders and harm reduction services; minimizing research that could perpetuate disparities and inequities; enhancing inclusivity in CHOSEN leadership, membership, and functioning; and promoting training, mentoring and pipeline opportunities for underrepresented minority scholars. The EI workgroup also aims to ensure that CHOSEN research is guided by the voices and representation of the diverse stakeholders from communities we serve, consistent with best practice community-based participatory research principles.

2. Implementation Science
This working group is led by Professors Aimee Campbell, Ph.D, MSW and Tim Hunt, PhD, MSW, LCSW. The focus is to increase capacity to develop and conduct implementation science research on opioid and other substance use disorders, with a focus on supporting new investigators.  They also promote education and training in implementation science related to opioid and other substance use disorder treatment, including using implementation science to reduce burden and health disparities of people with opioid and substance use disorders. This group also fosters opportunities for implementation science research collaborations in opioid and other substance use disorder treatment, including an emphasis on multidisciplinary and across systems approaches fostering innovative strategies.

3. Psychiatric Comorbidities
This group working is led by Professors Frances Levin, M.D. and Edward Nunes, M.D. Their mission is to promote awareness and foster research that addresses the impact of psychiatric comorbidity on individuals with substance use disorders. The significant prevalence and consequence of comorbidity between substance use disorders and other psychiatric diagnoses warrants the development and optimization of a more comprehensive approach that can evaluate, diagnose, and treat patients with these diagnoses. This CHOSEN Workgroup facilitate these goals using a multifaceted approach that will recruit and combine participation within the domains of research, education and clinical care. Training and mentoring, publishing manuscripts and other literature, along with organizing symposia and clinical workshops are among some of the specific methods that this CHOSEN Workgroup will utilize to accomplish our mission.

4. Pain & Anesthesia
This group is led by Professors Sandy Comer, Ph.D. and Caroline Arout, PhD. The mission of this group is to (1) identify research gaps pertinent to the treatment of pain that have high public health relevance and (2) develop cross-disciplinary approaches to addressing these gaps. The Working Group will meet monthly to discuss our vision with the goal of identifying opportunities to develop grant proposals, write review and basic research papers, and organize symposia both within the University and at national conferences. We will initiate our meetings this month and provide feedback to the CHOSEN leadership on a reasonable timeline for accomplishing our aims.

5. Cannabis
This group is led by Professors Margaret Haney, PhD and Caroline Arout, PhD. Their mission is to develop collaborations across disciplines to focus on the impact of changing attitudes and cannabis use patterns (medical, recreational) across a range of domains. They are currently collaborating with the Pain and Anesthesia group on a survey data collection project that aims to understand the relationship between cannabis use and peri-operative outcomes, which is based on evidence that cannabis users require anxiolytics leading up to surgery, and more post-operative opioids post-surgery.

6. COVID-19 Risk and Mental Health Severity
This group is led by Professors Diana Martinez, MD and Frances Levin, MD, and has concluded work with the INSIGHT database detailing COVID-19 severity and its relationship to mental health using EMR data from New York City hospitals. 

7. COVID-19 Policy Changes in OUD Management
This group is led by Professors Nabila El-Basel, Ph.D. LCW, Aimee Campbell, Ph.D., MCW, Tim Hunt, PhD., MSW, LCSW, Elwin Wu, PhD, LCSW, Frances Levin, M.D., and Edwards Nunes; M.D. This group focuses on research to understand how new policies and practices to deliver interventions on addiction we developed and how these innovations can be enhanced and sustained.