Robert Heimer, PhD

Robert Heimer, PhD, is a Professor of Epidemiology (Microbial Diseases) in Public Health and of Pharmacology in the School of Medicine. Dr. Heimer’s major research efforts include scientific investigation of the mortality and morbidity associated with injection drug use. Presently, Dr. Heimer is offering postdoctoral fellows the opportunity to participate in two newly funded projects: 1) A community-based and wastewater drug checking project to examine variability in Connecticut’s illicit drug market in order to detail spatial and temporal changes in illicit drug markets within and between communities of people using these drugs in different cities in Connecticut. We are gathering integrated data on the drugs in circulation in the illicit marketplace through a combined effort to check the drugs of individual people who use drugs (PWUD) and test for drugs in the wastewater stream in the communities where these people live. The relationship of the community and wastewater testing data to data on the drugs involved in fatal overdoses and the circumstances of non-fatal overdose data from all EMS responders will lead to the development and testing of spatial and temporal models that can detect the drugs associated with clusters of overdoses and to predict overdose patterns. The models, in turn, can influence the development of interventions to reduce the incidence of overdose. 2) A project to foster real-time connections to care using systems dynamics modeling to inform efforts that expand medication-based treatment for opioid use disorder (MOUD) while simultaneously testing if the addition of a fully virtual telehealth intervention (RecoveryPad) to motivate individuals to initiate medication-bases treatment for OUD can add an effective and novel modality to existing OUD treatment efforts. Ongoing refinement of existing models will integrate updated statewide and local administrative data on drug use, overdose, OUD treatment, incarceration and ongoing input from key community stakeholders, and data from a randomized clinical trial of RecoveryPad. Our long-term goal is to implement novel SD modeling and telehealth strategies in Connecticut, with the potential for subsequent dissemination nationally, that improve access to MOUD and reducing OD events and fatalities.