Staff Profile - MGH Institute for Technology Assessment

Huiru Dong, PhD

Postdoctoral Fellow, Harvard Medical School

Huiru Dong received her PhD in Population and Public Health from the University of British Columbia and holds an MS in Epidemiology from the University of Alberta. The overarching goal of her research is to improve health and social outcomes for people living with substance use disorders through rigorous data science methodologies. Prior to joining the lab, Dr. Dong was a senior statistician and investigator at the British Columbia Centre on Substance Use, where she spent the last eight years working on the development and implementation of novel statistical methods, investigation of the determinants of health and drug use outcomes, and evaluation of drug policies and services. Dr. Dong is currently working with Dr. Mohammad Jalali (“MJ”) on projects using machine learning models and system dynamics models to understand polysubstance use during the opioid crisis.

Selected Publications

Stringfellow, Erin J; Lim, Tse Yang; Dong, Huiru; Zhang, Ziyuan; Jalali, Mohammad S

The association between longitudinal trends in receipt of buprenorphine for opioid use disorder and buprenorphine-waivered providers in the United States Journal Article

In: Addiction, vol. 118, no. 11, pp. 2215-2219, 2023, ISSN: 1360-0443.

Abstract | Links | BibTeX

@article{pmid37434347b,

title = {The association between longitudinal trends in receipt of buprenorphine for opioid use disorder and buprenorphine-waivered providers in the United States},

author = {Erin J Stringfellow and Tse Yang Lim and Huiru Dong and Ziyuan Zhang and Mohammad S Jalali},

doi = {10.1111/add.16291},

issn = {1360-0443},

year  = {2023},

date = {2023-11-01},

urldate = {2023-07-01},

journal = {Addiction},

volume = {118},

number = {11},

pages = {2215-2219},

abstract = {AIMS, DESIGN AND SETTING: We sought to describe longitudinal trends in buprenorphine receipt and buprenorphine-waivered providers in the United States from 2003 to 2021 and measure whether the relationship between the two differed after capacity-building strategies were enacted nationally in 2017. This was a retrospective study of two separate cohorts covering the years 2003-21, testing whether the association between two trends in these cohorts changed comparing 2003 to 2016 and from 2017 to 2021, among buprenorphine providers in the United States, regardless of treatment setting. Patients receiving dispensed buprenorphine at retail pharmacies.nnPARTICIPANTS: All providers who have obtained a waiver to prescribe buprenorphine in the United States, and an estimate of the annual number of patients who had buprenorphine for opioid use disorder (OUD) dispensed to them at a retail pharmacy.nnMEASUREMENTS: We synthesized and summarized data from multiple sources to assess the cumulative number of buprenorphine-waivered providers over time. We used national-level prescription data from IQVIA to estimate annual buprenorphine receipt for OUD.nnFINDINGS: From 2003 to 2021, the number of buprenorphine-waivered providers in the United States increased from fewer than 5000 in the first 2 years of Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval to more than 114 000 in 2021, while patients receiving buprenorphine products for OUD increased from approximately 19 000 to more than 1.4 million. The strength of association between waivered providers and patients is significantly different before and after 2017 (P \< 0.001). From 2003 to 2016, for each additional provider, there was an average increase of 32.1 [95% confidence interval (CI) = 28.7-35.6] patients, but an increase of only 4.6 (95% CI= 3.5-5.7) patients for each additional provider, beginning in 2017.nnCONCLUSIONS: In the United States, the relationship between the rates of growth in buprenorphine providers and patients became weaker after 2017. While efforts to increase buprenorphine-waivered providers were successful, there was less success in translating that into significant increases in buprenorphine receipt.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

AIMS, DESIGN AND SETTING: We sought to describe longitudinal trends in buprenorphine receipt and buprenorphine-waivered providers in the United States from 2003 to 2021 and measure whether the relationship between the two differed after capacity-building strategies were enacted nationally in 2017. This was a retrospective study of two separate cohorts covering the years 2003-21, testing whether the association between two trends in these cohorts changed comparing 2003 to 2016 and from 2017 to 2021, among buprenorphine providers in the United States, regardless of treatment setting. Patients receiving dispensed buprenorphine at retail pharmacies.nnPARTICIPANTS: All providers who have obtained a waiver to prescribe buprenorphine in the United States, and an estimate of the annual number of patients who had buprenorphine for opioid use disorder (OUD) dispensed to them at a retail pharmacy.nnMEASUREMENTS: We synthesized and summarized data from multiple sources to assess the cumulative number of buprenorphine-waivered providers over time. We used national-level prescription data from IQVIA to estimate annual buprenorphine receipt for OUD.nnFINDINGS: From 2003 to 2021, the number of buprenorphine-waivered providers in the United States increased from fewer than 5000 in the first 2 years of Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval to more than 114 000 in 2021, while patients receiving buprenorphine products for OUD increased from approximately 19 000 to more than 1.4 million. The strength of association between waivered providers and patients is significantly different before and after 2017 (P < 0.001). From 2003 to 2016, for each additional provider, there was an average increase of 32.1 [95% confidence interval (CI) = 28.7-35.6] patients, but an increase of only 4.6 (95% CI= 3.5-5.7) patients for each additional provider, beginning in 2017.nnCONCLUSIONS: In the United States, the relationship between the rates of growth in buprenorphine providers and patients became weaker after 2017. While efforts to increase buprenorphine-waivered providers were successful, there was less success in translating that into significant increases in buprenorphine receipt.

Vivas-Valencia, Carolina; Dong, Huiru; Stringfellow, Erin J; Russell, W Alton; Morgan, Jake R; Tadrous, Mina; Jalali, Mohammad S

Factors Associated With Abrupt Discontinuation of Long-Term High-Dose Opioid Treatment Journal Article

In: JAMA Netw Open, vol. 6, no. 11, pp. e2341416, 2023, ISSN: 2574-3805.

Links | BibTeX

Dong, Huiru; Stringfellow, Erin J; Russell, W Alton; Jalali, Mohammad S

Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Buprenorphine Treatment Duration in the US Journal Article

In: JAMA Psychiatry, vol. 80, iss. 1, pp. 93-95, 2023, ISSN: 2168-6238.

Abstract | Links | BibTeX

Dong, Huiru; Hayashi, Kanna; Fairbairn, Nadia; Milloy, MJ; DeBeck, Kora; Wood, Evan; Kerr, Thomas

Long term pre-treatment opioid use trajectories in relation to opioid agonist therapy outcomes among people who use drugs in a Canadian setting Journal Article

In: Addictive Behaviors, vol. 112, pp. 106655, 2021, ().

Links | BibTeX

Dong, Huiru; Hayashi, Kanna; Milloy, MJ; DeBeck, Kora; Singer, Joel; Wong, Hubert; Wood, Evan; Kerr, Thomas

Changes in substance use in relation to opioid agonist therapy among people who use drugs in a Canadian setting Journal Article

In: Drug and alcohol dependence, vol. 212, pp. 108005, 2020, ().

Links | BibTeX

Dong, Huiru; Hayashi, Kanna; Singer, Joel; Milloy, Michael John; DeBeck, Kora; Wood, Evan; Kerr, Thomas

Trajectories of injection drug use among people who use drugs in Vancouver, Canada, 1996--2017: growth mixture modeling using data from prospective cohort studies Journal Article

In: Addiction, vol. 114, no. 12, pp. 2173–2186, 2019, ().

Links | BibTeX

Dong, Huiru; Kerr, Thomas

Joint Trajectories of Heroin Use and Treatment Utilisation: Who Will Benefit in the Long Term? Journal Article

In: EClinicalMedicine, vol. 14, pp. 7–8, 2019, ().

Links | BibTeX

Dong, Huiru; Robison, Leslie L; Leisenring, Wendy M; Martin, Leah J; Armstrong, Gregory T; Yasui, Yutaka

Estimating the burden of recurrent events in the presence of competing risks: the method of mean cumulative count Journal Article

In: American journal of epidemiology, vol. 181, no. 7, pp. 532–540, 2015, ().

Links | BibTeX