Opioid, Alcohol, and Substance use Implementation Science (OASIS) Program

The vision of the University of Colorado Department of Emergency Medicine Opioid, Alcohol, and Substance use Implementation Science (OASIS) program is to perform cutting edge translational research, implementation science, and evaluation in the high impact areas of opioid safety, Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (PDMP) use, screening and treatment initiation. Our focus is on patients with substance use disorder (SUD) including opioid use disorder (OUD) and alcohol use disorder (AUD). We employ a data driven approach using established implementation science methods to complete pragmatic research evaluating both implementation strategies and the effectiveness of the interventions.

We strive to be leaders in the field of SUD research by developing and evaluating interventions to improve care for people with a SUD and guide policymakers/administrators on systems-level reforms. Together we aim to advance population health and improve the quality of care.

To date, we have developed and completed a variety of projects addressing the opioid crisis including: PDMP–EHR integration, clinical decision support to improve prescription opioid safety, improved decision-making for opioid prescribing, quantifying long-term consequences of opioid prescribing, evaluating the impact of legislative changes, and building a community collaboration to initiate treatment for opioid use disorder in the ED with a warm hand-off to community care.

All our projects have a shared vision of providing accurate information and interventions that are: usable in a variety of settings, technologically feasible within provider workflows, and sustainable beyond project funding. To accomplish these projects, we have developed successful collaborations with multiple key stakeholders including: NIH/NIDA, SAMHSA, Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies, the Bureau of Justice Assistance, Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, Colorado Behavioral Health Administration, UCHealth Informatics, the Department of Defense, and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, amongst others.

Our Team

Jason Hoppe, MD is a clinician-researcher, medical toxicologist and Associate Professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. He is also a consultant in medical toxicology at Denver Health, Children’s Hospital Colorado and the Rocky Mountain Poison and Drug Center. His clinical work, research, and public health efforts are aimed at addressing the complicated decision-making process regarding the opioid prescribing and effectively initiating treatment for patients with an opioid use disorder. He recently developed and piloted a program to initiate buprenorphine treatment in the Emergency Department with a warm hand-off to community partners. He is a national expert in prescription opioid safety, prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMP), and provider decision-making. Dr. Hoppe is a founding member of the Colorado Consortium for Prescription Drug Abuse Prevention and has assisted with multiple public health efforts, education programs and successful legislative changes in Colorado regarding PDMP access, opioid prescribing and medications for opioid use disorder.

Aaron Barbour, B.S. is a data analytics & business intelligence developer. His first introduction to clinical research was at the Barbara Davis Center working for multiple clinical research studies related to type one diabetes. At the Barbara Davis Center, he worked as the clinical database manager for four research studies where he was responsible for database development, creating web applications and REDCap development. Within the OASIS program, he brings his experience to assist the team with their data and technical needs. The team leverages these resources to make data driven decisions about treatment and to improve patient care.

Izzie (Margaret) Clinton has served as a clinical informaticist in the Department of Emergency Medicine at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus since fall 2023. She has decades of experience in healthcare and has been working with Epic Electronic Health Record (EHR) data since 2018. Izzie takes an understanding of how end users use and builders design Epic applications and uses that understanding to develop data extracts optimized for interpretability and streamlined for statistical analysis. Izzie also builds dashboards and leverages CU Anschutz’ Health Data Compass Data Warehouse, to securely manage and broker Protected Health Information (PHI) from multiple sources.

Kennon Heard, MD is Section Chief of Medical Toxicology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine where he is a Professor of Emergency Medicine. He is also an attending physician for the Rocky Mountain Posion and Drug Center. He works and teaches at the University of Colorado Hospital Emergency Department. His research interests include improving opioid use, medical conditions associated with cannabis use, acetaminophen poisoning and research design. He has authored over 100 papers and 20 book chapters in various areas of Emergency Medicine and Toxicology.

Jared Heinze, MPH, joined the Opioid, Alcohol, and Substance use Implementation Science (OASIS) program as the Research Services Program Manager in April 2025. Jared has interdisciplinary training in behavioral neuroscience and public health. Along with his training he brings over 10 years of research administrative experience to the program. Jared started his career as a research professional at the University of Colorado Boulder where he helped to develop and translate therapeutic interventions for patients with behavioral affective disorders. Jared’s focus within the Substance Use Research Program is to develop and expand research projects and community partnerships aimed at improving access to and reducing unwarranted variation in the use of evidence-based, effective care for treatment of substance use disorders

Colin Hensen, MS is a Research Scientist with the Center for Innovative Design and Analysis, in the Department of Biostatistics & Informatics at the Colorado School of Public Health. Colin’s expertise lies in statistical analysis and methodology, study design, and data management. Since joining the OASIS research team in 2022, Colin has worked on studies involving provider workflow interventions to reduce high-risk prescribing and has focused on evaluating the impacts of these interventions both to the provider workflow as well as on longer-term health outcomes for patients.

Lauren Kargul, B.S. is a Research Services Senior Professional with the University of Colorado Department of Emergency Medicine’s Opioid, Alcohol, and Substance use Implementation Science (OASIS) program. She brings a strong background in healthcare coordination, wellness education, and substance use treatment, with expertise at the intersection of clinical practice and data-driven quality improvement. Lauren supports research focused on opioid safety and treatment access through her work in protocol development, data management, and patient-centered interventions. She has led community wellness initiatives and education programs, contributing to the implementation of sustainable, evidence-based strategies that improve outcomes for individuals with opioid use disorder.

Jacob Lebin, MD is an Assistant Professor at the University of Colorado and a consultant in medical toxicology at Denver Health, Children’s Hospital Colorado, and the Rocky Mountain Poison and Drug Center. His research interests include implementation of best practices for the management of alcohol withdrawal and the use of clinical decision support for ED-based treatment of alcohol and opioid use disorder. He is a scholar of the National Foundation of Emergency Medicine and member of the NIH/NIDA ANTIDOTE Institute through the American College of Medical Toxicology.

Zhixin Lun, PhD, is a Research Associate biostatistician at the Center for Innovative Design and Analysis (CIDA) in the Department of Biostatistics and Informatics at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. She specializes in observational studies, missing data analysis, causal inference, and open-source software development. Her research interests include developing and applying mathematical models and statistical methods in pharmaceutical economics and health outcomes evaluation using large-scale electronic health records (EHR) and administrative claims datasets (APCD, Medicare, etc.), creating imputation methods for missing data from multivariate non-normal distributions, and conducting sensitivity analyses for unmeasured covariates in causal inference, with applications in observational epidemiology. For over four years, she has focused on observational research related to opioid usage and patient safety. With more than a decade of experience in statistical programming using R, SAS, and Python, she has co-authored two R packages. Additionally, she collaborates with Children’s Hospital to develop AI tools for a comprehensive understanding of health and disease. She is a member of the American Statistical Association and the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics.

Consulting Subject Matter Expert Sean Michael, MD (Informatics) is currently the Emergency Department Medical Director at the University of Colorado Hospital and the Fellowship Director of the Emergency Medicine Administration, Operations, and Quality Fellowship at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. Raised in Denver, CO, he attended medical school at the University of Colorado and completed emergency medicine residency at Detroit Receiving Hospital. He attended fellowship training in administration, operations, and leadership at the University of Massachusetts, where he also earned an MBA. His research interests focus on ED and hospital crowding, patient flow, and provider behavior change, particularly around high-variation resource utilization and opioid prescribing. He is also board-certified in Clinical Informatics and holds a number of Epic builder and analyst certifications that support his work on clinical decision support systems, data analytics, and workflow design.

Heather Tolle, PhD joined UCDenver in October 2021 as Project Manager for Dr Jason Hoppe with a long history in research. Heather started her research career at the University of Louisville translating interventions for patients with traumatic spinal cord injuries from the lab to the clinic. Heather has also monitored trends of substance use treatment across the state of Colorado. She brings her background of criminal justice, substance use disorder, and medical research to the opioid research program focusing on the larger community aspects of the opioid crisis.

Grants
Publications

Current Grant Support

“A prospective evaluation of Colorado’s new statutory PDMP mandates: compliance and patient outcomes” Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies 2023-2025

“Improving pain management and opioid safety through a systemwide, data driven evaluation of the CDC opioid prescribing guidelines best practices and the use of Clinical Decision Support” R33 NIH, NIDA 2022-2027

“Navigating Data Solutions for Chronic Pain and Opioid Use Disorder” NIH, NIDA 2022-2028

Past Grant Support

“Improving Emergency Department pain management through dissemination and implementation of best practices for alternatives to opioids” Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services (SAMHSA). 2020-2023

“A Health System Wide Evaluation of Mandated Use and Clinical Decision Support Tools to Improve PDMP Utilization and Patient Outcomes” Bureau of Justice Assistance. Subcontract with Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies. Action Researcher: 2020-2022

“SB 18-22 Evaluation: Assess the implementation of Colorado Senate Bill 18-022 on patient outcomes and provider prescribing behavior” Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. 2019-2022

“Advancing PDMP and EHR integration Project: Integration Demonstration and Clinical Decision Support Proof of Concept (POC) test site” CDC/ONC. Site lead. 2019-2021

“EMBED: Pragmatic trial of user-centered clinical decision support to implement Emergency department-initiated Buprenorphine for opioid use Disorder. NIH/NIDA UG3/UH3. PI Edward Melnick Yale. Site PI. $315K. 2019-2021

“Development and Piloting of a Decision Tool for Emergency Department Opioid Initiation to Decrease Future Substance Abuse and Chronic use” Department of Defense: JPC 5 Substance Abuse Research Grant. Principle investigator. 2018-2021

“Assess the Implementation of Colorado Senate Bill 18-0252 on Prescriber Behaviors” Comprehensive Opioid Abuse Program: Site Based Program Category 6 via subcontract with Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. Action Researcher. 2018-2021

“Colorado Opioid State Targeted Response: Expanding Access to Opioid Use Disorder Treatment Through Emergency Departments” SAMHSA State Targeted Response (STR) grant via Colorado Office of Behavioral Health. Principle investigator. 2018-2019

“Pilot expansion of EHR-PDMP Integration” CDC via subcontract with Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. Principle Investigator. 2017-19

“The risk of long-term prescription opioid use and aberrant prescription behavior following an emergency department opioid prescription for acute back pain” Department of Defense; JPC 5 Substance Abuse Research Grant. Co-PI. 2016-18

“A Stepwise Evaluation of Prescription Drug Monitoring Program Electronic health Record Integration, Decision Support and Mandated use.” Harold Rogers Prescription Drug Monitoring Program: PDMP Practitioner and Research Partnership Grant. Bureau of Justice Assistance. Principal Investigator. 2015-18

"Ryan White HIV/AIDS Treatment Extension Act Part A: early intervention services grant." US Department of Health and Human Services. Co-investigator. 5% cFTE. 2010-2015.

“Prescription Opioid Safety in Emergency Departments.” University of Colorado Department of Emergency Medicine seed grant. Principal investigator. $3K. 2014

“The Use of Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs and Geographic Information Systems to Identify Communities at Risk of Prescription Opioid Overdose Fatalities.” Emergency Medicine Foundation (EMF) Health Policy Research Grant. Principal Investigator. $50K. 2013

“Long-term Opioid use after Discharge from the Emergency Department.” University of Colorado Department of Emergency Medicine seed grant. Principal investigator. $5K. 2013

“Reducing Central Line-Associated Bloodstream Infections and Procedure Related Complications Through Simulation.” University of Colorado Department of Emergency Medicine Education Grant. Co-investigator. $7,147. 2012

“The Efficacy and Safety of Epic Medication Alerts.” University of Colorado Hospital Clinical Efficacy and Patient Safety Grant. Co-Investigator. $20,000. 2012

Peer-reviewed Journals

Kelly T, Hoppe JA, et al. A Novel Social Work Approach to Emergency Department Buprenorphine Induction and Warm Hand-off to Community Providers. American J Emerg Med. 2020. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 31959523

Betz ME, Hyde H, DiGuiseppi C, Platts-Mills TF, Hoppe J, et al. Self-reported Opioid Use and Driving Outcomes among Older Adults: Findings from the AAA LongROAD Study. J Am Board Fam Med. Accepted for publication.

Heard K, Bebarta VS, Hoppe JA, Monte AA. Does administration of haloperidol or ketorolac decrease opioid administration for abdominal pain patient? A retrospective study. Am J Emeg Med. 2019. Epub. PMID: 31138518

Weiner SG, Hoppe JA, Finkelman MD. Techniques to Shorten a Screening Tool for Emergency Department Patients. West J Emerg Med. 2019 Aug 20;20(5):804-809. PMID: 31539338

Wagner S, Hoppe JA, Zuckerman M, Schwarz K, McLaughlin J. Efficacy and safety of topical capsaicin for cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome in the emergency department. Clin Tox. 2019. 2019 Sep 4:1-5. PMID: 31482758

Kim,H, Hoppe JA, Emergency Department Provider Perspectives on Benzodiazepine-Opioid Co-Prescribing: A Qualitative Study. Academic Emerg Med.2018;25(1):15-24. PMID: 28791786

Wang GS, Hoppe JA, Brou L, Heard K. Medication Organizers (Pill Minders) Increase the Risk for Unintentional Pediatric Ingestions. Clin Toxicol (Phila). 2017;55(8):897-901. PMID: 28471310

Hoppe JA, McStay C, SunB, Capp R. Emergency Department Attending Physician Variation in Opioid Prescribing in Low Acuity Back Pain. West J Emerg Med. 2017;18(6): 135–1142. PMID: 29085548

Wang GS, Roosevelt G, Fagan K, Hoppe J. Pediatric Emergency Physician Knowledge and Utilization of Prescription Drug Monitoring Program. Clin Pediatr (Phila). 2017 Jan; 56(1):80-82. PMID: 26976807

Pomerleau AC, Nelson LS, Hoppe JA, Salzman M, Weiss PS, Perrone J. The Impact of Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs and Prescribing Guidelines on Emergency Department Opioid Prescribing: A Multi-Center Survey. Pain Med. 2017;18(5):889-897.PMID: 26995800

Burton JH, Hoppe JA, Echternach JM, Rodgers JM, Donato M. Quality Improvement Initiative to Decrease Variability of Emergency Physician Opioid Analgesic Prescribing. West J Emerg Med. 2016 May;17(3):258-63. PMID: 27330656

Pomerleau AC, Perrone J, Hoppe JA, Salzman M, Weiss PS, Nelson LS. Impact of Prior Therapeutic Opioid Use by Emergency Department Providers on Opioid Prescribing Decisions. West J Emerg Med. 2016 Nov;17(6):791-797. PMID: 27833690

Genco EK, Forster JE, Flaten H, Heard K, Goss F, Hoppe JA, Monte AA. Clinically Inconsequential Alerts: The Characteristics of Opioid Drug Alerts and Their Utility in Preventing Adverse Drug Events in the Emergency Department. Ann Emerg Med. 2016;67(2):240-48

Frank JW, Levy C, Calcaterra SL, Hoppe JA, Binswanger IA. Naloxone Administration in US Emergency Departments, 2000-2011. J Med Toxicol. 2016 Jun;12(2):148-56. PMID: 26621354

Kim HS, Heard KJ, Heard S, Hoppe JA. Opioid prescription fill rates after emergency department discharge. Am J Health Syst Pharm. 2016 Jun 15;73(12):902-7. PMID: 27261241

Poon SJ, Nelson LS, Hoppe JA, Perrone J, Sande MK, Yealy DM, Beeson MS, Todd KH, Motov SM, Weiner SG. Consensus-Based Recommendations for an Emergency Medicine Pain Management Curriculum. J Emerg Med. 2016 Aug;51(2):147-54. PubMed PMID: 27369855

Hoppe JA, Kim H, Keard K. Association of emergency department opioid initiation with recurrent opioid use. Ann Emerg Med. 2015;65:493-499

Hoppe JA, Nelson L, Perrone JM, Weiner SG. Opioid prescribing in a Cross Section of US Emergency Departments. Ann Emerg Med. 2015;66:253-259

Monte AA, Heard KJ, Hoppe JA, et al. The accuracy of self-reported drug ingestion histories in emergency department patients. J Clin Pharmacol. 2015 Jan;55(1):33-8

Monte AA, Bronstein AC, Heard KJ, Hoppe JA, et al. An outbreak of exposure to a novel synthetic cannabinoid. NEJM. 2014;370:389-90

Hoppe JA, Houghland J, Yaron M, Heard K. Recent Opioid Prescription History of Emergency Department Patients Prescribed Opioids. West J Emerg Med. 2013;14:247-252

Alhelail MA, Hoppe JA, Rhyee SR, Heard KJ. Clinical Course of Repeated Supratherapeutic Ingestion of Acetaminophen. Clin Tox. 2011; 49:108-112

T Rhyee SH, Hoppe JA, Heard K. Multiple Aminotransferase Peaks Following Acute Acetaminophen Overdose. Pharmacotherapy 2010;30(10):1084-1088

Bebarta VS, Kao L, Froberg B, Hoppe JA, Et al. A Multicenter Comparison of the Safety of Oral Versus Intravenous Acetylcysteine for Treatment of Acetaminophen Overdose. Clin Toxicol. 2010; 48: 424-30

an HH, Hoppe JA, Heard K. A systematic review of the cardiovascular effects from overdose of atypical antipsychotic medications. Am J Emerg Med. 2009; 27(5):607-616.

Dart RC, Borron SW, Caravati EM, Hoppe JA, et al. Expert consensus guidelines for stocking of antidotes in hospitals that provide emergency care. Ann Emerg Med. 2009; 54(3):386-394

Hawk, K., Hoppe, JA, et al. Consensus recommendations on the treatment of opioid use disorder in the emergency department. Annals of emergency medicine. 2021; 78(3), 434-442

Alishahi ML, Olson K, Brooks-Russel A, Hoppe JA, Runyan C. Provider Reactions to Opioid Prescribing Report Cards. J Pub Health Manag Practice. Epub May 2021. 28(2), E518-E524.

Heard K, Ledbetter CM, Hoppe JA. Association of Emergency Department Opioid Administration with Ongoing Opioid Use: A Retrospective Cohort Study of Patients with Back Pain. Acad Emerg Med. 2020;27(11):1158-1165

Melnick EP, Nath B, Ahmed OM, Hoppe J, et al. Progress Report on EMBED: A Pragmatic Trial of User-Centered Clinical Decision Support to Implement EMergency Department-Initiated BuprenorphinE for Opioid Use Disorder. J Psychiatr Brain Sci. Epub. 10.20900/jpbs.20200003

Jeffery MM, D’Onofrio G, Paek H, Hoppe JA, et al. Trends in Emergency Department Visits and Hospital Admissions in Health Care Systems in 5 States in the First Months of the COVID-19 Pandemic in the US. JAMA Intern Med. 2020;180(10) 1328-1333

Zuckerman M, Kelly T, Heard K, Zosel A, Marlin M, Hoppe J. Physician attitudes on buprenorphine induction in the emergency department: results from a multistate survey, Clinical Toxicology. 2020;Sep;1-7

Kelly T, Hoppe JA, et al. A Novel Social Work Approach to Emergency Department Buprenorphine Induction and Warm Hand-off to Community Providers. American J Emerg Med. 2020;38(6):1286-1290

Book Chapters

Hoppe JA, Monte AA. Anticholinergics. Rosen’s Emergency Medicine 2015, 2020.

Holst J, Hoppe JA. Acid Base status in Markovchick: Emergency Medicine Secrets, 6e. Oct 2015.

Hoppe JA. Vision Loss. Chapter: Rosen and Barkin’s 5 minute Emergency Medicine Consult 2010-2012 revision

Buchanan J, Hoppe JA, Mendoza C, Rhyee SH. Toxicology. In Blok, B.K. et al eds. First Aid for the Emergency Medicine Boards. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 2008, updated 2011.

Hoppe JA. Phencyclidine. Chapter: Up to Date 2008-2020. Uptodate.com

Hoppe JA. Heat Exhaustion and Heat Stroke. Chapter: Emedicine 2006. Emedicine.com

Su M, Hoppe JA. Caustic Ingestion Protocol. Long Island Poison Control Center. 2005

In the News

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CU Campuses

CU Anschutz Medical Campus

Department of Emergency Medicine

School of Medicine

Opioid, Alcohol, and Substance use Implementation Science (OASIS) Program

Our Team

Current Grant Support

Past Grant Support

Peer-reviewed Journals

Book Chapters

In the News

Emergency Medicine (SOM)

Opioid, Alcohol, and Substance use Implementation Science (OASIS) Program

Our Team

Jason Hoppe, MD

Aaron Barbour, BS

Izzie Clinton

Kennon Heard, MD

Jared Heinze, MPH

Colin Hensen, MS

Lauren Kargul, BS

Jacob Lebin, MD

Zhixin Lun, PhD

Sean Michael, MD

Heather Tolle, PhD

Current Grant Support

Past Grant Support

Peer-reviewed Journals

Book Chapters

In the News

Emergency Medicine (SOM)