The MAARC is a National Institute of Health (NIH) funded research center based at the University of Chicago. The MAARC’s overarching mission is to provide a suite of data intensive capabilities that will enhance quality and impact of JCOIN interventions and research. Through advanced bi-directional data sharing, analytics and modeling capacities the MAARC provides new scientific insights into interventions at the intersection of opioid use and justice contexts that will ultimately lead to reductions in opioid overdose. The long-term mission of these cores is to reduce opioid use disorder and overdose, revolutionize opioid interventions, and to impact associated epidemics such as mental health disorders, HCV, and HIV.
In Phase II, the MAARC will continue to provide a national resource in identifying, assessing, and implementing essential interventions to address the evolving overdose epidemic among people experiencing criminal legal involvement. The MAARC will also conduct novel empirical research to ensure timely understanding of changes in current practices in the U.S. related to addressing SUD and overdose in criminal-legal settings and affected individuals.
Activities will include:
- Overall leadership and coordination of centralized data management;
- Data infrastructure support, inclusive of any data harmonization activities;
- Providing resources for advanced methodological and analytical techniques across the network;
- Conducting research on dynamic changes in policy and practice in criminal-legal and relevant community-based service settings; and
- Conducting novel studies applying cutting edge analytical techniques to existing data and data collected across the JCOIN network.
The JCOIN Phase II MAARC includes 7 cores:
Principal Investigators
John Schneider
MD, MPH, University of Chicago
Russell Brewer
DrPH, University of Chicago
Harold Pollack
PhD, University of Chicago
Administrative Core (AC)
The Administrative Core (AC) will integrate existing organizational and collaborative infrastructure to provide overarching resources and organizational structure and management to the Center. The AC will galvanize MAARC activities with a central administrative, fiscal services, and oversight inclusive of all MAARC Cores and institutions. The AC has been designed to ensure that the team is accountable and efficient; conducts impactful Substance Use and Criminal Legal Context research; provides consultations; and engages in meaningful key influencer collaboration within MAARC, with the Coordination and Translation Center (CTC), across JCOIN Research Hubs, the larger research community, and NIDA.
Core Leads
- John Schneider, MD, MPH, University of Chicago
- Russell Brewer, DrPH, University of Chicago
- Harold Pollack, PhD, University of Chicago
Data and Analytics Support Core (DASC)
The Data and Analytics Support Core (DASC) will build upon its accomplishments in Phase I to continue to support Phase I studies as they complete their data collection and analyses, to onboard and support Phase II studies, to maintain and enhance the JCOIN Data Commons (JDC) providing data discovery, secure access and cloud computing to both JCOIN and external researchers. The DASC will facilitate the collection, archiving, and storage of data collected by the Research Hubs, assist with closeout and curation of Phase I data and facilitate internal (JCOIN) and external (public) data sharing across both JCOIN Phases. In addition, the DASC will facilitate collaborative secondary analyses (in close collaboration with the TAC) within the network by providing access to harmonized, targeted data products including linked administrative and other external data, and to facilitate full compliance by JCOIN investigators with all NIH and HEAL data sharing requirements.
Core Leads
- Phil Schumm, MA, University of Chicago
- Robert Grossman, PhD, University of Chicago
- Russell Brewer, DrPH, University of Chicago
Technical Assistance/Consultation Core (TAC)
The Technical Assistance Core (TAC) will leverage the experience and expertise of an exceptionally qualified group of analytic, methodologic and subject matter experts to support on-demand technical assistance (i.e., consultation) and provide appropriate resources to JCOIN Phase I PIs, JCOIN Phase II researchers, and scientists across NIDA and beyond. They will provide the research hubs and the broader scientific community with guidelines and tools for reproducible research – a key element to increase scientific rigor and trust in the analyses that have a potential to change policy. Our approach relies on horizontal integration across the MAARC cores with the TAC serving as a hub for coordination of technical assistance (TA) requests and linking those requests to the relevant experts. The TAC will collaborate with the CTC to develop and implement a user-friendly system of collecting and processing TA requests and will work with the research hubs to deliver the required support in an optimal way. The role of the TAC will extend beyond the provision of technical expertise and will include efforts to support secondary data analyses, as well as collaboration with other Cores and with the CTC to achieve the overarching goals of the Network.
Core Leads
- Olga Morozova, PhD, University of Chicago
- Eric Polley, PhD, University of Chicago
Survey Research Core (SRC)
The Survey Research Core (SRC) seeks to track dynamic changes in public opinion related to substance use disorders (SUDs), criminal legal involvement (CLI), stigma towards SUDs and CLI, social determinants of health (SDOH), and related public health opportunities and challenges. The Survey Research Core (SRC) will leverage NORC’s expertise to support national surveys about topics broadly relevant to substance use, stigma, behavioral health, and public health with opportunities for specialized surveys of criminal legal systems, as well as modified referral sampling of AmeriSpeak adjacent community members. Building on the demonstrated productivity of the JCOIN Phase I work, the SRC will create a scientifically rigorous and rapid system for (1) gathering data on national trends in practice and opinion over time, (2) establishing opinions on above topics in specialized national cohorts including those with current drug use, service providers and those impacted by CLI involvement, (3) evaluating differences in public opinion across geographical and sociodemographic groups, and (4) reporting on this work to the JCOIN community and other collaborators.
Core Leads
- Moira McNulty, MD, University of Chicago
- Bruce Taylor, PhD, University of Chicago
Geospatial Core (GC)
The Geospatial Core (GC) will build upon popular geospatial tools, data and policy scans from Phase I to support innovative geospatial analysis that address important in the environmental context of overdoses in criminal legal involved community members. The vision of the Geospatial Core is to formalize, refine, and build community capacity for a geospatial framework of modeling contemporary complexities of substance use disorder (SUD) resource distribution dynamics, embedded within the socio-ecological processes driving the opioid epidemic.
Core Leads
- Marynia Kolak, PhD, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
- Basmattee Boodram, PhD, University of Illinois at Chicago
Modeling Core (MC)
The Modeling Core (MC) will develop an agent-based network modeling framework to conduct experiments of JCOIN trials and other in-silico trials guided as well as a network model of JCOIN collaboration using multiple existing and new data sources. The Modeling Core will build on an existing in silico trials framework (ISTF) that combines agent based modeling and network science for evaluating interventions to increase engagement in SUD treatment and reduce overdose mortality, among people who use drugs or who experience SUD and those with criminal legal involvement (CLI).
Core Leads
- Anna Hotton, PhD, University of Chicago
- Jonathan Ozik, PhD, University of Chicago
Policy Landscape Core (PLC)
The Policy Landscape Core (PLC) will inventory and characterize major policy/legal/funding environmental changes with specific focus on Medicaid/criminal-legal-system linkages at the state and national level. The core will produce datasets and related resources that can be used by MAARC cores, JCOIN hubs, and the larger NIDA research community to assess and assist efforts by policymakers and criminal-legal system actors to establish and maintain access to evidence-informed treatment and services for people who face the intersecting challenges of substance use disorder and criminal legal involvement (CLI).
Core Leads
- Harold Pollack, PhD, University of Chicago
- Colleen Grogan, PhD, University of Chicago