Research

Research Award Updates

2021
Elizabeth Nilsen received the 2021 Research Award and recently submitted the final report. The goal of her study was to determine the impact of preoperative mental health care on adverse opioid-related outcomes, with particular attention to patients with substance use disorder and severe mental illness. The results of her study indicated that mental healthcare provided in the year prior to surgery may significantly reduce prolonged postoperative opioid use for patients with severe mental illness.

She writes:

"The funds from this award were utilized to aide in my professional development through attending the AcademyHealth Health Policy Orientation (HPO) and the AcademyHealth Annual Research Meeting (ARM). At HPO, I attended seminars from researchers, public officials and government employees on the process of creating policies and the translation of research into policy. Given the implications of my research on preoperative care, this orientation has helped me to consider important design, analytic and dissemination approaches to make my work most impactful. At ARM, I had the opportunity to present the findings of this project at the poster session, as well as attend sessions and network with other researchers and policy makers interested in mental health services and opioid prescribing."