Cristina Murray-Krezan lent her statistical expertise to a new JAMA Internal Medicine study

Despite the growing availability of effective medications for opioid use disorder (OUD), many people with OUD who have been hospitalized do not initiate or are not connected with post-discharge services.

New research that includes statistical expertise from Cristina Murray-Krezan, associate professor in the School of Medicine’s Division of General Internal Medicine, found people with OUD are twice as likely to begin medication and 1.5 times as likely to continue the care for OUD once they were discharged when they receive treatment from a specialized addiction consultation service during their hospital stay.

The study, published in JAMA Internal Medicine, compared the Substance Use Treatment and Recovery Team (START) against usual care in a clinical trial across three academic medical centers. START is comprised of an addiction medicine specialist and a care manager and provides assessment, treatment planning and followup support for patients with OUD.

Murray-Krezan was responsible for the statistical study design and led the data coordination and statistical analyses for the study. Allison Ober, senior policy researcher at RAND, and Itai Danovitch, chair of psychiatry at Cedars Sinai in Los Angeles, were the principal investigators of the study.