University of Minnesota School of Public Health doctoral student Zongbo Li has been awarded a 2025-26 pilot grant from the Center for Health Economics of Treatment Interventions for Substance Use Disorder, HCV, and HIV (CHERISH), a leading national research center that evaluates the cost-effectiveness and value of healthcare interventions for substance use and related conditions.

Li is part of the research team that helped to develop the Prevention and Rescue of Fentanyl and Other Opioid Overdoses Using Optimized Naloxone Distribution Strategies (PROFOUND) model, which has been used to project how to best expand naloxone (an effective opioid overdose reversal drug) distribution in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and New York City.

With support from the CHERISH grant, Li will adapt the PROFOUND model to people in California’s prison system. Roughly 30% of people incarcerated in the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation live with opioid use disorder (OUD), making it an especially critical area for public health intervention.

The specific focus of Li’s project will be evaluating the health and economic impacts of providing extended-release buprenorphine (a medication used to treat OUD by reducing cravings and withdrawal symptoms) to California’s incarcerated populations. Findings from Li’s work will help inform the implementation of OUD treatment policies in California and to other incarcerated populations across the U.S.

Li is pursuing a Health Services Research, Policy & Administration PhD.