The Center for Health Enhancement Systems Studies (CHESS) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison has received a five-year grant as part of a National Institutes of Health (NIH) initiative to drive solutions to the national opioid crisis.
The new grant—from the Helping to End Addiction Long-term (HEAL) Initiative—brings the center’s NIATx model for process improvement in behavioral health into NIH’s Justice Community Opioid Innovation Network. The CHESS team will help test combinations of evidence-based practices for implementing medication-assisted treatment for opioid use disorder in criminal justice populations following incarceration.
CHESS Deputy Director Todd Molfenter is co-principal investigator for the project, while Faye Taxman, a professor at George Mason University is principal investigator.
CHESS, based in the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at UW-Madison and founded by Professor Emeritus David Gustafson, creates and disseminates evidence-based interventions and process improvements to meet healthcare challenges.