Lead Researchers
Ryan Westergaard, MD, Ph.D., MPH
Co-Principal Investigator
Dr. Westergaard is an Associate Professor of Medicine and Population Health Sciences at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. As an infectious disease physician and epidemiologist, he has been researching populations affected by HIV, hepatitis C, and substance use disorders since 2009. Dr. Westergaard has used epidemiologic methods to describe how health care usage and treatment outcomes are inferior for people who inject opioids compared to other key populations. His work has demonstrated that factors contributing to these disparities include individual characteristics and behaviors, provider and health system factors, and larger structural and political forces.
Andrew Quanbeck, Ph.D.
Co-Principal Investigator
Andrew Quanbeck, Ph.D., is an associate professor in the University of Wisconsin’s Department of Family Medicine and Community Health and an honorary associate of the University of Wisconsin’s Department of Industrial & Systems Engineering. Dr. Quanbeck also serves as a faculty member at the UW’s Clinical and Translational Science Award program. In this capacity, he consults with clinical researchers across campus to help them apply dissemination and implementation concepts to extend the impact of their work.
Dr. Quanbeck heads the Implementation Science and Engineering Lab at UW. His research draws upon concepts from systems engineering to develop innovative approaches to implementing evidence-based practices His research focuses specifically on the implementation of evidence-based practices and technologies for the prevention and treatment of substance use disorders in medical care settings.
The innovative approaches to implementation he has developed have been evaluated in multiple NIH-funded trials and have led to directly to health improvements for patients suffering from addiction. The overall goal of his line of research on digital health implementation is to develop a flexible, pragmatic model that can be used for assessing and improving the adoption potential of digital health apps in diverse healthcare settings.
Dr. Quanbeck is currently the principal investigator on three NIH-funded R01s that use innovative systems engineering approaches to promote the implementation of evidence-based interventions for the prevention and treatment of substance use disorders. He has authored 40 peer-reviewed publications, 16 as lead author. Dr. Quanbeck is also a standing member of NIH’s Science of Implementation in Health and Healthcare study section and a member of the Editorial Board of the journal Implementation Research and Practice.
Research Study Team
