Paul G. Barnett, Ph.D.
Director, Health Economics Resource Center
VA Palo Alto Health Care System
tel: (650) 493-5000 ext. 2-2475
fax: (650) 617-2639
e-mail: paul.barnett@va.gov
Dr. Barnett's research focuses on the cost-effectiveness of health care inventions, determination of the cost of health care in the absence of billing data, and economic modeling in support of health care policy decisions. He is a health economist at the VA Center for Health Care Evaluation, the VA Cooperative Studies Program Coordinating Center, and the Treatment Research Center at the University of California, San Francisco. He is also Consulting Assistant Professor in the Department of Health Research and Policy at Stanford University School of Medicine.
His health services research focuses on the cost-effectiveness of treatments for substance abuse disorders. He is applying methods used to evaluate medical care interventions to the substance abuse field. A model of the effect of methadone maintenance on health care costs and survival determined the treatment is at least a cost-effective as other health care interventions provided to injection drug users. This work is being extended via a dynamic model of the HIV epidemic being developed in collaboration with Stanford Professor Margaret Brandeau. They are also combining the results of a meta-analysis of trials comparing buprenorphine to methadone with the HIV model to determine the potential cost-effectiveness of buprenorphine maintenance.
Dr. Barnett is assisting investigators in the University of California, San Francisco Treatment Research Center evaluate a medication management intervention for HIV-positive drug abusers, among other interventions. He is assisting a VA trial testing if a matching strategy improves hospital and community- based residential treatment for substance abuse patients with psychiatric disorders.
He is undertaking an economic analysis of data from the VA Non-Q-wave Infarction Strategies in Hospital (VANQWISH) trial, which demonstrated that a conservative, ischemia-guided strategy was safe and effective for management of non-Q-wave myocardial infarction. He also serves as the VA economist on a trial evaluating PTCA in the context of intensive medical therapy in the treatment of all but the very highest risk patients with coronary heart disease. He is leading a team that is studying wether Positron Emission Tomography is cost-effective enough to justify its adoption for the diagnosis lung cancer
Selected Publications
PG Barnett, W Wong, S Hall (2008). The cost-effectiveness of a smoking cessation program for our-patients in treatment for depression. Addiction 103:834-40.
JL Sorensen, Haug NA, Delucchi KL, Gruber V, Kletter E, Batki SL, Tulsky JP, Barnett PG, and Hall S (2007). Voucher reinforcement improves medication adherence in HIV-positive methadone patients: a randomized trial. Drug and Alcohol Dependence 88:54-63.
PG Barnett, CL Masson, JL Sorensen, W Wong, S Hall (2006). Linking opioid dependent hospital patients to drug treatment: health care use and costs 6-months after randomization. Addiction 101(12):1797-1804.
C Timko, S Chen, JM Sempel, PG Barnett (2006). Dual diagnosis patients in community or hospital care: one-year outcomes and health care utilization and costs. Journal of Mental Health 15(3):1-15.
S Chen, C Timko, JM Sempel, PG Barnett (2006). Outcomes and costs of matching the intensity of dual diagnosis treatment to patients' symptom severity. Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment 31 (1) :95-105.
JL Sorensen, CL Masson, K Delucchi, K Sporer, PG Barnett, F Mitsuishi, C Lin, Y Song, TC Chen, SM Hall (2005). Randomized trial of drug abuse treatment-linkage strategies. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychatry 73(6): 1026-1035.
PG Barnett, GS Zaric, ML Brandeau (2001) The cost effectiveness of buprenorphine maintenance for opiate addiction in the U.S. Addiction 96:1267-1278
PG Barnett, JH Rodgers, DA Bloch (2001) A meta-analysis comparing buprenorphine to methadone for treatment of opiate dependence. Addiction 96:683-690
