Wei-Hsuan “Jenny” Lo-Ciganic, Ph.D., M.S., M.S. Pharm., an associate professor in the University of Florida College of Pharmacy, has been honored with the Award for Excellence in Health Economics and Outcomes Research Application by the International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research, or ISPOR. The award was presented on Nov. 13 at the ISPOR Europe 2023 meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Lo-Ciganic’s selection was based on her paper titled, “Developing and validating a machine-learning algorithm to predict opioid overdose in Medicaid beneficiaries in two US states: a prognostic modelling study,” which was published in the Lancet Digital Health in 2022. The paper examined the performance of a machine-learning algorithm in predicting opioid overdose using Medicaid data from Pennsylvania and Arizona. The findings suggest the algorithm may be valuable for overdose risk prediction and stratification in Medicaid beneficiaries.
The ISPOR Award for Excellence in Health Economics and Outcomes Research Application was established in 1997 to recognize outstanding practical applications of health economics and outcomes research in health care decision-making. Lo-Ciganic is the first faculty member in the UF College of Pharmacy to win the award.