Community and Public Health Programs
Hepatitis C Research
In addition to treating substance abuse, the Division of Community and Public Health Programs is concerned with the health conditions that often accompany it. Intravenous drug abusers are especially susceptible to developing hepatitis C through the use of contaminated needles. Interim Division Chief Ann B. Beeder, M.D., Director of the Vincent P. Dole Research and Treatment Institute for Opiate Dependence, is studying how to best identify and treat patients with viral hepatitis. She collaborates on several initiatives with Bruce Schackman, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Public Health and Chief of the Division of Health Policy, and other members of the Center for the Study of Hepatitis C.
For a current research project, Dr. Beeder and Andrew H. Talal, M.D., Associate Professor of Medicine, have received a commitment of $100,000 over a two-year period from the Clinton Global Initiative for a Translational Research Center for Viral Hepatitis. The project is being funded by Jill Iscol, Ed.D., a donor activist and President of the IF Hummingbird Foundation. The objectives are to implement treatment algorithms for viral hepatitis that could serve as a model for resource poor areas ranging from inner cities in the United States to developing countries with limited health care infrastructure, and to create a world-class biomedical translational research facility devoted to viral hepatitis to facilitate the rapid validation of novel prognostic and treatment biomarkers that can be used to change patient management. The plan for this commitment is to evaluate and treat methadone maintained patients for viral hepatitis among current enrollees at the New York Presbyterian Hospital. Approximately 300 methadone maintained patients will be screened for viral hepatitis. Those who show signs of having been exposed to viral hepatitis will be evaluated to assess disease severity. Treatment will be prescribed as indicated. Treated patients will have blood obtained for measure of potentially promising biomarkers of treatment outcome.
