Basmattee Boodram

Areas of Expertise

• Adolescents
• Community-based Solutions
• Criminal Justice
• Epidemiology
• Heroin
• Injection Drug Use
• Medication-assisted Treatment (MAT)
• Naloxone
• Prevention
• Telehealth
• Infectious Disease: Hepatitis C

1. Contextual Risk Factors for Hepatitis C among Young Persons Who Inject Drugs

Category: Research
Funded

R01DA043484, NIDA, 2017-2022

A longitudinal study of 420 young persons who inject drugs and 1,156 of their drug injection network partners to examine the role of social networks, social geography, drug use social norms, and drug use stigma on (a) hepatitis C risk and drug overdose. The research project will elucidate key contextual and structural factors to inform the development of innovative strategies (e.g., network interventions) to reduce hepatitis C incidence and overdose among young people who misuse drugs.

2. Computational Discovery of Effective Hepatitis C Intervention Strategies

Category: Research
Funded

R01GM121600, NIGMS, 2012-2017, PI: Basmattee Boodram

Study aims to develop the first comprehensive, empirical data-driven agent-based computational model for a U.S.-based population of persons who inject drugs to enable policy makers to identify the most effective intervention strategies for elimination of hepatitis C in the United States, which was deemed feasible for the U.S. by 2030 by the World Health Organization.

3. Reducing Opioid Mortality in Illinois (ROMI)

Category: Research
Funded

1UG1DA050066-01, NIDA, 2019-2024,  UIC Site PI: Basmattee Boodram

More than 2,700 Illinois residents died of opiate overdose in 2017, a number that surpassed the states combined fatalities from road accidents and gun homicide. Individuals leaving jail and prison may be at highest risk of fatal overdose and other drug-related harms. Severely vulnerable men and women face these risks at precisely the moment they cross boundaries of fragmented criminal justice, social service, and public health systems, and are thus most vulnerable to lost follow-up and disengagement from services, or to have other basic needs left unattended. The challenge may be most acute for detainees who rapidly flow through jail settings, where unpredictable departures hinder discharge planning and care coordination, and where justice stakeholders may hold attitudes that stigmatize substance use or resistant to harm reduction interventions. Individuals returning to Chicago communities of color are near relatively rich resources for both treatment and harm reduction. Yet they must navigate epicenters of illicit narcotics distribution that feature particularly high incidence of fatal overdose from heroin, fentanyl, and other synthetic opioids. Rural individuals in Southern Illinois, may have long travel distances from any methadone facility or any DEA-waivered physician available to prescribe buprenorphine. Rural patients also face geographic barriers to the provision of naloxone and SSPs. Many harm reduction services have been designed and implemented to serve urban populations in traditional centers of opioid use. The acceptability and cultural competence of such rural services remains understudied. Our proposed multi-site ROMI trial (Reducing Opioid Mortality in Illinois) seeks to address this public health challenge through improved supports and service linkages to medication-assisted treatment (MAT), naloxone distribution, and syringe support services (SSPs) provided to justice-involved individuals living with opioid use disorders. We seek to test whether a unified case management approach that includes peer recovery coaches can improve treatment engagement and retention in five diverse urban and rural contexts that all experience high rates of opioid disorders, overdose, and related harms. We request funds to implement a five-site Randomized Controlled Trial, enrolling at least 1,000 individuals living with OUD. The ROMI trial will be carried out using a hub-and-spoke model, with centralized long- standing social services infrastructure at the Community Outreach Intervention Projects (COIP) hosted at the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC). COIP provides case management/transition of care services to justice- involved opioid users, extending resources and technical assistance to less-populated rural areas hardest-hit by the opioid epidemic. Using a hybrid type-one effectiveness implementation design, we propose a simple but effective package of treatment and harm reduction interventions to reduce subsequent opioid use and related harms in diverse contexts.

4. Methodology  And Advanced Analytics Resource Center (MAARC)

Funded

1U2CDA050098, NIDA, 2019-2024, UIC Site PI: Basmattee Boodram

We propose advanced bi-directional data sharing, analytics and modeling capacities to provide new scientific insights into interventions at the intersection of opioid use and justice contexts that will ultimately lead to reductions in opioid overdose: the Methodology and Advanced Analytics Resource Center (MAARC). The MAARC will support these capabilities within opioid clinical trials implemented within justice contexts. These capabilities include using advanced methods that provide best-in-class data storage, management and security with added value to these trials through products of forecasting, rapid real time assessments, explication and exploration of trial findings and cost-effectiveness analysis with key University of Chicago (UC) affiliates such as Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) and NORC. Our approach will revolutionize opioid interventions that work at all stages in the opioid cascade of care within diverse criminal justice contexts. Our diverse aims will develop this suite of capabilities implemented by a team with longstanding excellence and collaboration in these areas who will integrate with the JCOIN clinical trial units and a JCOIN Coordination and Translation Center. Findings from this work are also aimed to impact other opioid/justice associated epidemics such as mental health disorders, hepatitis C and HIV. Our Aims are organized to implement specific MAARC components with four dynamic Cores: 1) Data Analytics Support Core (DASC) is the largest Core; Advanced Methods and Research Core (AMRC) includes three sub-core projects; Population, Policy, Practice and Survey Core (P2S) includes the majority of rapid assessment services for Clinical Trials Units and geospatial support services; and an Administrative Core (ADMC) will integrate and administrate the entire MAARC. We believe our project has unique strengths in the investigative team, rich data resources and modeling.

5. The Hepatitis C Community Alliance to Test and Treat (HepCCATT) in Chicago Program

Category: Community-based Health Promotion
Funded

1US1PS004607, CDC/NCHHSTP, 2014-2019, UIC Site PI: Basmattee Boodram

This intervention project aims to strengthen health-care capacity to diagnose and cure hepatitis C (HCV) through implementation of a package of HCV-related services in Chicago populations with HCV-related health disparities, including individuals born between 1945 and 1965, African-Americans, and persons who inject drugs.