Martin Wegman, a pre-doctoral fellow in the Department of Health Outcomes & Policy and M.D.-Ph.D. candidate at the University of Florida, was awarded the Alice S. Hersh Student Scholarship in recognition of his commitment to the field of health services research. The award will provide funds to cover part of the cost of attending AcademyHealth’s Annual Research Meeting, as well as opportunities to meet and network with experts in the health services research field.
“I am honored to receive this scholarship and excited to attend the Annual Research Meeting,” said Wegman. “This is a fun and exciting opportunity to be able to meet one-on-one with experts in the field and network with other students who share the same passion.”
The meeting will be held in Boston on June 26-28. At the conference, Wegman will give an oral presentation, “Relapse to Opioid Use Occurs Sooner in Opioid-Dependent Persons Released from Compulsory Drug Detention Centers Compared to Voluntary Methadone Treatment Centers in Malaysia.” In his talk, Wegman compares the drug rehabilitation outcomes of patients in two types of government-supported treatment programs in Malaysia: compulsory drug detention centers, which are commonplace throughout East Asia, and voluntary drug treatment centers. While compulsory abstinence, forced work, and athletic drills are standard care in the detention facilities, the voluntary centers provide methadone maintenance therapy on a voluntary inpatient basis. Wegman found that when he compared the median time a patient relapses after release to the community, those who had participated in the voluntary treatment center program were significantly more likely to remain drug-free than those who had been confined in a compulsory drug detention center.
Read more about Wegman’s presentation here.