Mentor: Dr. Walter Ling, University of California, Los Angeles
Dr. Suzanne Nielsen leads her own research group at Monash University in Australia, holds the role of deputy director of the Monash Addiction Research Centre, and is currently an Australian National Health and Medical Research Council Leadership Fellow.
She has launched a series of studies focused on addressing emerging opioid-related harm, including a project that monitors community signals of potent synthetic opioids, including fentanyl and nitazenes. This work draws on community signals and clinical information to provide early warning signs of new and potentially dangerous drug trends. Nielsen also leads the EPIC-MATOD project, which has involved codesigning a collaborative model of care that was then tested in a hybrid implementation-effectiveness trial design. The collaborative model of care better leverages pharmacists to increase access to opioid agonist treatment.
Alongside this, Nielsen’s research group was given support by Australia’s federal government to codesign, test, and disseminate the Opioid Safety Toolkit, a system that uses personalized information and evidence-based resources for consumers, carers, and health care professionals to improve health literacy around prescribed opioids. Nielsen reflects that “the collaborative environment and exposure to diverse methodologies” in her NIDA fellowship enriched her research perspective and expertise.