Official websites use .gov

A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS

A lock ( 🔒 ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Need Help

Prospective Evaluation of Community Outreach via Emergency Medical Services to Individuals At-Risk for Overdose (PECO-EMS)

Award Number: K08DA062758
ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL INSTITUTE ON DRUG ABUSE
OPDIV: NIH
AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY
AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: TRAINING/TRAINEESHIP
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE START DATE: 03/15/2026
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 02/28/2031

Group Awards By:

View Award Description

Prospective Evaluation of Community Outreach via Emergency Medical Services to Individuals At-Risk for Overdose (PECO-EMS) - PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT This career development award will provide the didactic coursework, experiential training, and mentorship necessary for the candidate to become an independent clinician-scientist capable of developing and evaluating emergency medical services (EMS)-based interventions for substance use disorders (SUD). The research plan focuses on the opioid epidemic and emerging EMS interventions for harm reduction, treatment linkage, and recovery support for individuals following nonfatal overdose. Despite a rapid expansion of EMS interventions for SUD, data to guide the most effective approaches remain limited. There is an urgent and critical need to develop and evaluate strategies that reach and engage at-risk individuals earlier and more intensively in harm reduction, treatment linkage, and recovery support. EMS has traditionally focused on emergency stabilization and transport, but its emerging public health arm – mobile integrated healthcare & community paramedicine (MIH-CP) – expands services to include community outreach, prevention, and longitudinal care. A common MIH-CP example is the post-overdose quick response team (QRT), which delivers EMS-based outreach, harm reduction materials, and treatment linkages after overdose. Though increasingly popular, demand for QRT has outpaced evidence, leaving its optimal design, services, and outcomes unclear. QRT has focused almost exclusively on opioid use despite the broader burden of polysubstance use and remains largely reactive, engaging individuals only post-overdose. Expanding QRT to proactively reach at-risk individuals (i.e., pre-overdose) and broadening its consideration of co-occurring SUD represents a compelling yet untested approach to enhance early intervention and improve outcomes. The objective of this study is to rigorously observe and evaluate an exemplar QRT in Columbus, Ohio to characterize processes and key components associated with improved outcomes. Our aims are to: 1) evaluate the association of proactive (pre-overdose) and reactive (post- overdose) outreach on participant engagement in QRT and 2) characterize predictors of change in substance use and health outcomes three months after QRT engagement. The contribution of this research will be to characterize the real-world outcomes of QRT intervention and identify critical components that improve individual and public health. With mentorship from a qualified and multidisciplinary team, the candidate will generate a preliminary dataset evaluating QRT approaches, guiding the next generation of EMS-based SUD interventions by supporting NIDA’s strategic goal to integrate harm reduction and treatment into real-world settings. The research plan complements and supports the candidate’s development as an independent clinician-scientist focused on EMS-based interventions for SUD by providing expertise in field-based longitudinal research, SUD outcomes assessment, advanced statistical analysis (including causal inference methods), and mixed-methods approaches to evaluation.


Issue Date FY	Funding FY	Legal Entity Name	Legal Entity Address	Legal Entity City	Legal Entity State	Legal Entity Zip Code	Legal Entity COUNTY	Legal Entity COUNTRY	Assistance Listing	Award Code	Budget Year	Action Date	Action Type	Action Amount

Issue Date FY: 2026 ( Subtotal = $189,000 )
2026	2026	OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY, THE	1960 KENNY RD	COLUMBUS	OH	43210	FRANKLIN	USA	Drug Use and Addiction Research Programs	000	1	3/4/2026	NEW	$189,000
														Subtotal = $189,000

Grand Total All Awards = $189,000

Top

All Categories

About

Search

Reports

Data Submission

Award Information

Prospective Evaluation of Community Outreach via Emergency Medical Services to Individuals At-Risk for Overdose (PECO-EMS)

Award Number: K08DA062758

ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL INSTITUTE ON DRUG ABUSE

OPDIV: NIH

AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY

AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: TRAINING/TRAINEESHIP

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE START DATE: 03/15/2026

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 02/28/2031

Federal Websites

Department of Health & Human Services

HHS Operating Divisions

HHS Staff Divisions

Download A Document Viewer