Project INSPIRE

Frederick (Rick) L. Altice is a professor of Medicine, Epidemiology and Public Health and is a clinician, clinical epidemiologist, intervention and implementation science researcher at Yale University School of Medicine and School of Public Health. Dr. Altice’s primary research focuses on interventions and implementation science at the interface between infectious diseases and addiction and he has conducted research in several global health settings. He also has a number of projects working in the criminal justice system, including transitional programs addressing infectious diseases, medications for opioid use disorder (methadone, buprenorphine, extended release naltrexone), mental illness, homelessness and social instability. Specific topics include alcohol, opioid, stimulant and nicotine use disorders on HIV treatment outcomes, HIV and addiction treatment, interface with the criminal justice system, and pharmacokinetic drug interactions between treatment for substance use disorders and antiretroviral and tuberculosis therapy. At a basic level, his research focuses on clinical epidemiology, especially in key populations at risk for HIV (e.g., MSM, TGW, PWID, prisoners, sex workers) and development, adaptation and evaluation of of biomedical and behavioral interventions to improve treatment outcomes. His research, however, has evolved and included development and testing of mobile technologies (mHealth) to intervene with key populations to promote health outcomes.  His research is especially concentrated in health services research techniques with a focus on implementation science, seeking to introduce and scale-up evidence-based interventions in numerous contexts. A number of implementation science strategies are underway to examine scale-up of medication-assisted therapies to treat opioid use disorder in community, criminal justice and in primary care settings. Most recently, his work has been augmented through use of decision science techniques to understand and promote patient preferences, including the development of informed and shared decision-making aids. His work has emerged primarily with a global health focus with funded research projects internationally in Malaysia, Ukraine, Moldova, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, Peru, and Indonesia. He has participated in projects through the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, the National Institute on Drug Abuse, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Agency, Special Projects of National Significance with HRSA, and the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment. He is currently also collaborating on projects with the WHO, UNAIDS, USAID, PEPFAR and UNODC. Current internationally funded projects in dedicated research sites that are being conducted in Malaysia, Ukraine, Moldova, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan and Peru. His research and training sites in Malaysia (2005), Peru (2010) and Ukraine (2005) are dedicated training and research sites for the Global Health Equity Scholars Fogarty Training Program and the Doris Duke International Fellowship program. He is currently the director for two International Implementation Science Research and Training Centers with collaborations between Yale University and the University of Malaya and Sichuan University.

Sandra Springer, MD is a Professor of Medicine in the Department of Internal Medicine, Section of Infectious Diseases at the Yale School of Medicine. Dr. Springer is Board-Certified in Internal Medicine, Infectious Diseases and Addiction Medicine. She is also an attending physician at the Veterans Administration Connecticut Healthcare System (VACHS) and the Director of the Infectious Disease Clinic at the Newington site of the VACHS. She is an appointed member of the International Antiviral Society–USA (IAS–USA) Antiretroviral Guidelines Panel as well as a Core Faculty member and has been appointed to the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s Committee on Framework for the Consideration of Chronic Conditions in Women. She mentors students across disciplines including public health, medicine, and the social sciences. Her research centers on the integration of substance use and infectious diseases with a focus on opioid use treatment and the treatment and prevention of HIV infection in people with carceral experience. In 2022, she was awarded the NIDA Avant Garde award for her innovative proposal to bring mobile health care for substance use and infectious diseases to where people live, through a mobile pharmacy and clinic. She is the director of her clinical research lab InSTRIDE (Integrating Substance use Treatment Research with Infectious Disease for Everyone) which encompasses a multidisciplinary team including research staff, clinicians, community health workers, and patient navigators as well as a mobile health unit and a mobile pharmacy and clinic.