The Prevention Policy Modeling Lab (PPML) at Stanford Health Policy has been awarded a five-year grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to continue evaluating the health impact, costs and cost-effectiveness of infectious disease treatment and prevention programs in the United States.

The cooperative agreement comes from the National Center for HIV, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention’s Epidemiologic and Economic Modeling Agreement (NEEMA), which supports data analysis and modeling to address the nation’s most prevalent infectious diseases, especially among priority populations. The $4.6 million, five-year award builds on PPML’s decade-long relationship with CDC.

The modeling lab, led by Stanford Professor of Health Policy Josh Salomon, PhD, includes over 30 experts in epidemiology, clinical medicine, modeling and economics of HIV, TB, hepatitis, STDs and disease syndemics. It was established in 2014 under the original NEEMA agreement with the goal of guiding public health decision-making to improve public health programs.

In addition to scientists at Stanford, the lab brings together collaborators from Boston Medical Center, Boston University, Brown University, Harvard University, MA Department of Public Health, University of Michigan, and Yale University. It welcomes three new partners: UC San Francisco, UC San Diego, and the Santa Clara County Public Health Department.

“Through NEEMA, we have had the opportunity to build this incredible team across universities, disease areas, and specializations,” said Teresa Puente, MPH, PPML program manager. “We are thrilled to broaden our collaboration over this round of funding, to work together to use novel modeling methods to improve public health policy.”

Puente said an important priority in the next phase of the lab’s work will be to continue to build and strengthen partnerships with state and local public health departments, including Massachusetts and Santa Clara County.

The new cycle of funding will also enable the lab to continue its work on health equity and social drivers of health, a growing emphasis over the last cycle of the lab’s work. 

"Our work on TB, hepatitis, HIV, and STIs aims to address persistent health disparities in these areas.” said Salomon. “Closing these gaps is critical to advancing both population health and health equity.”

The most recent PPML study, published this week in Jama Network Open, estimated the health and societal costs of racial and ethnic disparities in tuberculosis, highlighting the need for dedicated public health action to eliminate these disparities.

PPML’s engagement across universities also supports the growth and development of graduate students and researchers. Collaboration through NEEMA provides junior academic researchers the opportunity to work with federal, state and local partners, while influencing policy and disease prevention programs.

Over two previous cycles, PPML has published more than 60 peer-reviewed manuscripts across HIV, viral hepatitis, STDs, TB and adolescent health.